I’m working on a story for an upcoming issue of Farm Journal that looks at how high-technology can improve yields through improved planter accuracy. A few tidbits of info that I’ll expand on in the story:
-Singulation, as monitored on new seed monitors, is a measure of seed meter accuracy. 100 percent singulation means the seed meter is releasing seeds at the exact spacing necessary to give the desired seeds per acre.
-Every decrease of 1 percent in singulation has been documented by independent research to reduce final yield at harvest by 1.2 bushels per acre. If singulation is at 95 percent at planting, final yield will be reduced by an average of 7.5 bushels per acre compared to if singulation had been at 100 percent.
-Singulation is a measure of seed meter accuracy, but doesn’t account for irregular seed spacing in the seed furrow. A seed meter could produce 100 percent singulation as seeds exit the meter, but ricocheting of seeds off the walls of a seed tube can disturb actual seed spacing in the furrow. The discussion then becomes, if two kernels end up within an inch of each other, or on top of each other, does one of those resulting stalks of corn end up being a “weed?”
-Ride quality plays a major role in seed spacing in the furrow. The more a planter row unit jostles up, down and sideways while moving across a field, the more seeds ricochet off the walls of seed tubes during their free fall from the bottom of the meter til they land in the furrow.
-A planter with seed meters singulatiing perfectly at the bottom of the meters can still produce emerging plants that are irregularly spaced if the seedbed was rough.
-I’ve learned more about planting, seed meters, planting accuracy and seed placement in the past five years than I learned in the previous 40 thanks to improved seed monitor technology. It sometimes gives me a headache trying to learn and understand all of it, but it’s been educational.
