FARM REPORT: NORTH AMERICA ▶▶▶


Monster seeder offers new level of accuracy


Claimed to be the most accurate broad-acre drill ever built, the machine developed with the help of Canadian farmers’ cash goes on sale next year. Future Farming looks at what the high-tech kit offers


BY OLIVER MARK C 24


lean Seed, a Canadian outfit with a penchant for meticulous drilling precision, recently unveiled a maiden smart seeder promising never-seen-


before levels of accuracy from a high-output cereal planter. And its vital statistics make for some


eyebrow-lifting reading. It carries 360 motors, can drill six different products at three different depths, weighs 35t and the full package will cost you in the region of US$600,000. In return, you get some of the most sophisticated drilling technology ever imagined, including turn compensation,


overlap protection, individual point shut-off and a variable application rate at every opener. It relies heavily on six metering units that sit


on top of each row unit so individual legs can sow a different ration of seeds and fertilisers at the same time. In fact, the agronomic permutations are


practically limitless and it gives arable farmers and agronomists the opportunity to be as creative as they like with their inputs, tweaking drilling rates and application maps in almost infinite detail.


New designs The 17 different patents serve as a stark illustration of the CX-6’s novelty value and,


▶ FUTURE FARMING | 9 November 2017


remarkably, it has been transformed from drawing board sketches to the real deal in just five years. Its design has been heavily shaped by the


creative minds of a batch of Canadian farmers keen to push the boundaries of agronomics, but hobbled by the inconsistent seed distribution and limited adjustments offered by regular air seeders. The way pneumatic machines meter seed


and fire it through an air stream is far quicker than the old-but-reliable box drill, but air also causes seed to bunch, surge and bounce in the trench.


No good, then, if you wish to sow plants with extreme precision and mix exotic-


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