Clean Seed Smart Seeder CX-6 Working width
Empty weight Row spacing
Number of rows
Max application rate Max downforce
Normal seeding depth Hopper capacity Power required Price
18.2m (60ft) 35t
305mm (12in) centre spacing with a 100mm (4in) paired row 60
330kg/ha through each metering unit, or 1,980kg/ha on each row with all six meters combined 138 bar (2,000psi)
12.5mm-100mm (0.5-4in) 17,600-litres total (622cu ft) Minimum 450hp US$600,000
to Clean Seed’s Noel Lempriere. However, if you go down to a square-foot
level, you will likely find areas of the field where the rate is wildly off what you wanted. The answer, according to the designers, lies
The seeder, which can drill six different products, has speed sensors on each wheel to adjust rates when drilling around bends
sounding cocktails of artificial fertilisers to go with them. So, with an assembled team of farmers and
designers, the company decided to embark on its own drill-building mission. To fund the project, Clean Seed gathered a
healthy $80,000 investment from a group of 10 progressive farmers in Canada and by 2013 the first fruits of the development – the six- product digital metering system and triple- shot opener – were displayed at Canada’s Farm Progress Show.
Another financing push filled the coffers enough to continue development and a full prototype drill was unveiled in 2014. The first commercial unit then debuted last
year and several production machines have been working flat-out across Canada through last spring.
Metering is the key Farmers feel like they’re very accurate because when a field is drilled it has used their precalculated quantity of product, according
in electric metering. It takes away the distribution problems of air seeders that meter the inputs at the main tank, which are usually a long way through a tangle of plastic tubes from the coulter tip. The Smart Seeder’s pipework runs in the normal manner from the seed and fertiliser tanks to the row units; nothing unusual in that. However, it feeds a bank of six mug-sized
pre-holding stations that sit on top of each row assembly. These metering mugs are kept fully stocked with seed and/or fertiliser and operate independently of their neighbours, so rather than applying generic blends of fertiliser like most air drills, farmers can be as creative as
they like with their inputs because they are mixed as they drop down the opener chute. Each of the 360 automotive-grade electric
metering units is controlled wirelessly from a tablet in the tractor cab and they are powered by an onboard 24V AC circuit kept fully juiced by two batteries and an alternator. Amazingly, they sap just 1,900W, which as a
comparison, is less than it takes to run a regular hairdryer. Foam rollers grab the seed or granule from the mug and drop it by gravity into one of three stationary funnels, just like an old style box drill. To change which of the three funnels the
material is dropped into (and so which of the coulter outlets it falls through) there is a threaded rod that can be slid 75mm (3in) left or right, while there’s a deeper central outlet for fertiliser. The flotation tyres on each wing are also
▶
A Windows tablet wirelessly controls the 360 automative-grade electric metering units ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 9 November 2017 25
ALL IMAGES CREDIT CLEAN SEED
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