FARGO N.D. – Top corn yields are not possible unless every seed in the row is placed exactly the same distance from its two neighbouring seeds.
No crop is as demanding as corn when it comes to requiring perfect seed spacing within the row.
North American corn planter manufacturers have worked since 1846 to create the perfect planter. Although they have achieved perfect seed spacing, incorporating the efficiencies of a modern prairie-style air delivery system was a bigger challenge.
The volume on most corn planting implements has traditionally been limited by the hand-fill seed baskets that gravity feed down to the opener. Each seed basket holds three bushels.
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In a 16-row planter, that means 16 individual baskets to fill by hand for a total fill of 48 bu. of seed. This is a time-consuming task that large acreage prairie farmers won’t tolerate.
To deal with this time factor, companies have recently begun offering central hopper planters with air delivery to the openers.
To meet the challenge of perfect seed spacing, they install one seed singulation wheel above each opener. Each wheel feeds one seed at a time into its own dedicated opener.
Bulk tanks allow farmers to plant more acres between fills.
Agco’s White 8500CFS employs an air distribution system and twin 45 bu. air hoppers on an existing Challenger 8500 Flex Frame.
The twin hoppers are mounted directly over the centre of the frame. Although the 8500 frame was not originally designed to carry product, White engineers say it required only minor changes to accept the additional weight of the hoppers.
The positive air seed metering system feeds the singulation wheels. Engineers say the blower motor operates at 98 percent efficiency and has been designed with a life expectancy of 10,000 hours. The blower pressurizes each hopper and provides airflow to deliver seed to the row units.
Once the tank is up to pressure, air begins to flow through the delivery tubes. Seed is gravity fed into the mixing chamber beneath the hopper where it mixes with the air from the plenum. The plenum distributes air evenly to each row unit.
Singulation is the key to making air delivery work on a corn planter. Air and seed flow into a clear plastic singulation metering wheel, which allows only one seed at a time to enter each pocket within the wheel.
The wheel releases only one seed at a time, shooting it down to the opener, but not until the planting machine has travelled the correct distance in the field to achieve the correct spacing between corn plants.
In some situations, traditional seed hoppers are required on a few individual runs for refuge plantings or male-female hybrid plantings.
In corn refuge plantings, rows of non Bt seed are interspersed in the main Bt field. Pests are attracted to the non-Bt corn, which eases pressure on the Bt crop.
Seed growers need to plant alternating rows of male and female seed in a single pass, which can be accomplished by using the twin air hoppers or by installing individual row hoppers.
Installing an individual hopper is simply a matter of shutting off the airflow to that row and replacing the air meter cover with the hand-fill hopper.
