Producer Takes A ‘Tip-To-Tail’ Look At Seeding Efficiencies

CROP PRODUCTION

Buying a new piece of seeding equipment that promises better efficiency can work for farmers, but don’t forget the small, unsexy things that can help drive efficiency gains and incrementally save you money over time.

That was the message of a presentation called, “The Penny- Pincher’s Guide to Seeding Efficiency,” delivered by Nathan Gregg, a Paynton, Sask., farmer, at Ag in Motion last year.

Focusing on air seeders, Gregg — a former researcher with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) in Humboldt, Sask. — stresses the incremental gains that can be achieved through machinery adjustments, maintenance, informed agronomy, and fertility.

These can help drive three fundamental goals of seeding — desired rate, accurate seed placement in the furrow, and adequate seed-to-soil contact — hopefully, while minimizing seed damage and conserving seedbed moisture, he says.

“What are we really there for? To put that seed in the ground in the right place, at the right depth, with the right relationship to the fertility and with the right amount of packing. That’s our primary goal. It’s not just covering acres, it’s about doing that job well.”

Gregg emphasizes he is not against new technology. “But I often think when we talk about precision agriculture, if we ignore the smaller things, the things we’ve got in the palms of our hands in our own backyards, we’re missing out on opportunities.”

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT

The producer took a “tip-to-tail” look at various components of an air seeder to identify opportunities for maintenance and improvements that can improve efficiency and save money. He started with the distribution system.

There are a few different kinds of distribution systems one can find on an air seeder, but one thing they all have in common is metering. Metering systems require end-of-season care, lubrication and calibration, says Gregg.

“We need to be making sure we’ve cleaned out and lubricated some components to try and prevent buildup of residues from seeds, seed treatments, inoculants and fertilizer — the types of things that are going to inhibit performance come next year,” he says. He also recommends greasing chains and making sure bearings are in good shape.

Gregg stresses the importance of confirming the position of sliders, looking for wear or buildup on the rollers, augers and housing and making sure cover plates are in the right spot.

“Look for things like crevices or wear spots or areas where we might get increased mechanical contact with seed — spots where seed or fertilizer can get pinched and worn or ground away.”

Wear is an essential thing to look for on virtually any component of the distribution system because it can lead to residue buildups, which interfere with the system’s ability to run smoothly, says Gregg.

“Maybe we’re starting to get bridging within the tank that gives us some uneven feeding or buildup in the rotating components where we get binding, which generally inhibits the operation.”

Calibration is a pre-seeding maintenance activity few farmers enjoy. It can be time-consuming and onerous but ultimately needs to be done to help ensure seeding accuracy and account for management and environmental changes, says Gregg.

“There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve got (the air seeder) all set up, you’re just putting in the gear selection that you maybe used last year for that crop, and then you find out you’re significantly off your target rates. Or, even worse, you find out you’ve got a transmission that’s in the second range and you’ve seeded all of your canola seed in the first pass and a half, instead of across the whole field.

“Calibration is important just to confirm that as seed sizes, seed treatments, and humidity conditions change, (the machine settings) aren’t always just the same as they were last year. Calibration is the best way to confirm that.”

Tank pressurization is a big factor to be aware of, but it’s also relatively easy to identify any issues, he says.

“For most people who’ve had the experience of leaving the tank lid open and can’t figure out why they have more seed left over than they thought, you know it’s something that can have a fairly big impact.

“And, yet, it’s fairly easy to confirm. With a little bit of inspection, care and consideration, we can confirm the tank seals are in good shape, they haven’t been pinched or torn or cut, we know the metering body itself is sealed to the bottom of the tank and that we don’t have air leakage in some other spot that can be throwing off our rates.”

As a general rule, producers will want to look throughout the distribution system for plugging, product breakdown, and gumming — all factors that can affect its performance, says Gregg.

“Specifically, within the manifolds and on the impact plates coming into those we can see material breakdown, especially with fertilizer because most of the dry fertilizer products will take on moisture from the surrounding environment. Especially at higher humidity, we might start to see buildup, which can ultimately restrict airflow or redirect products and create variability within a manifold.”

It’s also important to not ignore the tower diffuser tubes, which feed into manifolds. These tubes are intentionally dimpled or rippled to create turbulence and randomization of products to minimize variability. However, they’re also magnets for product buildup. “We’ll start to see issues with the randomization and how (the tubes) feed those manifold fingers,” says Gregg.

The same attention should be paid to hose wear. “As hoses wear down from abrasive products, we see wear on the hoses. It starts to channel the material differently — it flows sort of all in one spot. In extreme cases, product flow can start to wear channels or grooves in the hose, which could affect how it feeds around bends or into the diffusers, and, thus, the randomization in the airstream and possibly the product co-mixtures if there’s more than one product.

“Again, we just want to be cognizant as things start to wear of performance differences. Especially if we start to get leaks — we all know something needs to be done then.”

Blockage monitors, which identify when hoses are experiencing lower-than-normal product flow, can be both a help and a hindrance that may require occasional attention, says Gregg.

“Because they reduce the size of the opening within the hose, a ledge can start to build up product and as it builds up you get a further restriction, which changes the airflow and the product flow. It’s just something we need to be mindful of depending on conditions and what seed treatments we’re using and all those types of things.”

Ultimately, all of the abovementioned distribution components are related to uniformity, says Gregg.

“If any of these things are not paid attention to, there is potential that we can have variability introduced where we can start to see things like pulsing, which can give us some intra-row variability. We’re targeting and trying to get as even as we can, so we want to make sure we don’t leave any stones unturned in trying to achieve that goal.”

AIRFLOW — NOT TOO FAST, NOT TOO SLOW

Managing airflow and speed on direct seeding equipment like air drills can be difficult, says Gregg. The air fan’s r.p.m. is typically used as a proxy to tell operators they’re in the correct range of airflow, but it’s not precise and the settings for different products can be a bit of a guess.

This is unfortunate, but there are some general things producers can do to make sure this imprecision has as little effect as possible in the seed row.

“We don’t want to overshoot our fan speed and get seed bounce because then we’re not achieving the fundamental of trying to get that placement — it’s bouncing out of the furrow onto the surface, lowering our emergence and ultimately yield potential.

“And, yet, we don’t want to go too slow or else we’re going to have some plugging. We also don’t want to go too fast or we’re potentially going to sustain some seed damage.”

SHARP OPENERS PREFERABLE IN MOST CASES

Opener selection and efficiency is arguably an entire field unto itself. There are a multitude of different types of openers, each with their own levels of soil disturbance. But at the end of the day, the key to a “good” opener is it’s placing seed and fertilizer cleanly and accurately, says Gregg.

“We need to be making sure as we’re digging in the soil that we’re checking to ensure the opener is doing what we want — it’s creating the shelf and placing the seed where we intend it and not down in the bottom of the fertilizer furrow or up on top outside the furrow.”

Opener choice depends greatly on soil type and moisture level, says Gregg, but sharp tools with sharp edges, combined with efforts to keep them in that condition, generally offer clear advantages.

“They’re going to cut through the soil better, leave us cleaner furrows or shelves and are going to minimize some of the residue problems you might have such as balling or galling on the front of the shank.”

Making sure the openers are maintaining a separation between seed and fertilizer is — combined with following provincially-set seed-safe levels of fertilizer — key to a productive seedbed. “As openers wear and get duller edges, we get more soil fracturing and we might start to see the seedbed degrade where one furrow is caving into the next,” he says.

Producers concerned about the effects of openers on seedbed quality may want to look into mid-row banding, which places fertilizer between every other seed row.

“There are some advantages there. It gives us a safety factor when doing anhydrous ammonia or urea applications. You can also get a smooth field finish, low disturbance, generally higher ground speeds and likely some lower draft just due to the fact you’re using a coulter versus a wider seed opener.”

But be aware, coulter systems have a lot of moving (and therefore wearable) parts that require attention. Otherwise, as they wear down, producers are not going to get the smooth cuts and accurate placement they’re hoping for.

“Coulter penetration in some drier soil conditions might be an issue as well and can lead to some anhydrous ammonia escape. Just things to think about as we do the job the best we can.”

HAVE SOME PACKING PRESSURE

Just like opener decisions are highly dependent on soil, packer choice is also subject to a range of factors. One that is frequently asked about is sufficient packing pressure.

For the most part, having any packing pressure at all is more important than its sheer amount, says Gregg. He pointed to PAMI studies that verify this.

“(PAMI) did some research looking at packing pressure. In layman’s terms, some is enough. There generally isn’t too much of a difference in yields or whatnot so long as there is some pressure. It’s not key that there’s absolutely tons of pressure to get that seed in there.”

OPTIMUM TRACTOR SPEED

Finally, Gregg addressed an elephant in the room producers often contend with — tractor speed. Producers are under constant pressure during seeding season to get the job done, in the process getting an itch to go faster and faster. He urges producers to remember the fundamentals of speed versus seeding.

“Generally, an increase in speed means a decrease in the accuracy of seed placement. (Speed) can increase soil throw, we have more soil fracture, we can even have some kind of hop in the seeding tool itself. We want to keep speed within a reasonable range. The general recommendation across the board is still in that four- to five mile-per-hour range.”

Disc drills may offer some latitude when it comes to higher speeds, he says. “But, generally, we want to make sure we’re not pushing faster than we should be.”

Jeff Melchior is an Alberta-based freelance reporter specializing in agriculture. Jeff can be reached at jeffmelchior4@gmail.com.

This article “Producer takes a ‘tip-to-tail’ look at seeding efficiencies” was used from Grainews Volume 48 – Number 7 – March 8, 2022.