CINCINNATI, Ohio – Those big headland X patterns created by overlapping seed rows have gotten bigger over the years as drills get wider.
There’s no reliable way to avoid putting down extra seed and fertilizer. If growing conditions are perfect, the extra inputs might provide extra yield, but how often does that happen?
A more likely scenario is that the double plant population tries to outcompete itself. The extra inputs end up causing a lower yield in the headlands. The wasted inputs also cost money.
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The more a producer pays for seed and fertilizer, the more of a headache the headlands become. Farmers paying $200 for a bag of hybrid corn seed as they do in Iowa, means those big Xs show up on the bottom line every time.
So it’s no surprise that it took a company based in Ames, Iowa, to solve the problem of double seeding and the notorious X patterns. Rather than shut off all or half of the planter, Tru Count Inc. developed a GPS-controlled clutch system that instantly shuts off specific seed runs as they are about to enter the forbidden double seeding area.
The company said the system is cost effective when one clutch is set up to control three or four seed rows to divide a planter into sections. A producer can also install one clutch on each individual seed run to almost eliminate double seeding.
Iowa Falls farmer Lee Madden said the Tru Count system saved him $3,200 in corn seed costs this year, enough to pay for the system the first year.
Although his savings in soybean seed were much smaller, 80 percent of his 2,000 acre farm is now in corn production, so managing corn input costs has become more important. Madden said the Tru Count will become a permanent part of his equipment lineup.
The Tru Count system Madden installed on his JD 1770 16-row planter is marketed by John Deere and is called Swath Control Pro. Madden’s system was still in the experimental stage on the JD planter, but it was comprised of components that are all off-the-shelf Tru Count parts.
For maximum savings, Madden installed the Swath Control Pro on all 16 seed runs. In corn, the savings averaged $2 per acre.
“The return’s not as good on beans because the seed doesn’t cost as much. On beans, we saved about $300 on 400 acres.”
Running through his StarFire GPS, Madden said, “it regularly shut off each seed run when it got a foot or maybe a foot and a half from the ground we already seeded. If we had RTK (real time kinetic), we’d have sub-inch accuracy on the shut-off points.”
The principle behind Tru Count is older than the hills. A clutch opens or closes specific seed runs by engaging or disengaging the shaft. Clutch actuation can be pneumatic, hydraulic or electric.
As the farmer turns in the headland, steers around a wet pothole or follows an odd shaped contour in the field, the Tru Count clutches shut off the seed runs just before they travel over ground that’s already been seeded.
As the seeder swings into a headland turn, the outer seed runs shut off first, just as they touch the first headland seed rows. Continuing into the turn, more seed runs progressively shut down.
If the operator drives accurately, the innermost seed run will just kiss the first headland row.
As the seeder swings out of the turn and begins to straighten, the seed runs progressively come back on as they hit unseeded ground.
According to Madden, an irregular field can be seeded with virtually no overlaps.
The key to making all this work is that Tru Count must know precisely when each seed run should be opened and closed. Although the system can be triggered manually by the operator, it really shines once GPS comes into play.
The guidance system maps the perimeter of the field on the first round. Once that information is logged, the computer knows where not to seed. It continues logging seeded ground until the field is finished, all the while shutting off the runs that approach forbidden ground.
If the operator needs to make a pass with only 20 percent of the runs on the left side of the machine to finish up an odd shaped area, the Tru Count allows only those seed runs to open. The others remain closed.
Tru Count is available for Kinze, Deere, Case IH and White corn planters. It installs in about 10 minutes per seed row and does not require machine modification. The control box is compatible with all GPS systems on the market, with the exception of Outback.
As agricultural aftermarket products go, Tru Count is not high priced. A typical kit with three clutches, control box, wire harness and mounting hardware sells for about $2,000 US. Additional clutches sell for about $400.
Tru Count president Jeff Dillman said the company doesn’t plan to adapt the technology to air drills and lower value crops such as wheat and canola.
“I’ve got more than I can handle outfitting all the corn planters in the world. I don’t know if we’ll ever have time to look at air drills and crops like wheat.”
Madden said the pneumatic system of delivering product to the opener would not be easy to control with a clutch system.
However, he thinks it’s not totally out of the question if commodity prices and seed prices justify it.
“A corn planter meters at each row, so that’s easy. An air system meters at the cart, so you’d have to somehow disrupt the air flow,” Madden said. “I’m not saying it can’t be done. It’s just more difficult.”
For more information, contact Jeff Dillman at 515-232-8285, or visit www.trucount.com.
