All About Planters

[putsie]

Gentlemen, Please teach me a thing or two about planters. Round these parts (south Sask.) you don't see them at all, couldn't find one if you tried. No corn grown up here. I have to admit I'm 28 and I've grown up a farm boy from day one but I know virtually nothing about planting corn. I've collected all these toy planters over the years and don't even know how they work or what kinda power is required to pull them.

Are they set up like a disc drill with 30" spacing and individual seed boxes or what? How is the seed metered? (ground drive? electronic?)The box on each planter row, for seed I assume, It must be a 2 bushel box? What is the rate you seed at? (bu/acre).

I'd just like a general understanding of how one works. Sorry for all the questions.

Oh yah, since I've been following along around this sight I've read a lot of comments stating that it is really odd or uncommon to run a 8 row planter with 6 row combine header and vise-versa or 12 row combine with 16 row planter, etc... I don't really understand why that becomes an issue. Does some one want to explain to this Canuck whats behind all this maddness.

Great sight by the way, looking forward getting in on some topics and sharing some pics with you all.

[steiger9330]

Well, I don't know too much besides the basics. First of all, most modern corn planters are set up on 30" spacings, but you can get other sizes. The seed is metered by a plate on each individual unit. Corn falls from the hopper into the a "slot" on the plate, and it rotates and the seed falls down the seed tube to the ground. I know that our planter is ground drive (I think there is a clutch on the shaft so it quits planting when you raise it up).

The row unit is typically set up like this (in general): no-till coulter (if you are not plowing your ground), two discs, a seed tube behind the blades, and two closing wheels to close the furrow. Each unit is different but has the same basic concept.

Another common option is fertilizer. Farmers put on starter fertilizer on their corn. You can either have liquid or dry fertilizer. Liquid uses tanks and dry uses hoppers. A common liquid fertilizer around here is 10-34-0 but some also use Nachurs Alpine. A common dry around here is 18-46-0 (also known as DAP-diammonium phosphate). The fertilizer just depends on what is popular in your area.

There is also different methods to keep the seed on the plate. Older planters just had a seed plate and corn just sat on the plate and you often had doubles or places where two seeds are put in the same spot. Our planter has a fan that blows air on the plate to keep the seed on the plate to keep the seed from falling off the plate. Others use a vacuum that I think pulls air from the plate and pulls seed to the plate. Others use mechanical fingers that grasp seed and release it as it rotates.

I think the boxes can either be 2 or 3. You can also get bulk seed delivery. We plant around 28,000 seeds per acre. Corn is usually measured seeds/acre and I think there is about 60000-80000 seeds in a bag of seed, but I could be wrong.

For your last question, it is very important to match up your rows with your corn planter. Yeah, in theory all rows should be 30" apart, but what about operator error? No one can plant straight (unless you use autosteer) and therefore some rows may be 26" or 36" wide in different parts of the field.

For example, if you plant with a 12 row planter an use an 8 row head, the first pass should be fine. But if for some reason you had to drive wide on the other round with the planter to avoid a hole, then you would have 4 rows going a completely different direction than you header.

Hope I answered some questions and If I made any mistakes, let me know.

[mnjosh]

Welcome to the site. I'll try and answer your questions. Row crop planters come in many different types and styles. Most common is individual row units with individual boxes. They hold roughly 1.5 to 3 bushels, depending on brand and options. In recent years center fill systems are starting to pick up in popularity. For row spacing 30 inches is pretty standard; some other spacings are 15, 20, 22, 36, and 38 inches. The wider rows (36 and 38 inches) are losing popularity and the narrower rows (15, 20, 22) are gaining.

We have a Kinze 6 row corn planter (1980's vintage). It has a mechanical metering system. Each row unit has a meter that has fingers that will meter out individual corn seed. Each row unit has adjustable depth control. This is much more precise versus a grain drill were you just set it from the hydraulic cylinder. Some of the newer planters use air or vacuum systems for metering and older planters used plates. Seeding rate we use is between 30,000-33,000 seeds/acre. Corn bags are measured in 80,000 seeds/bag and not by the pound (like a 50 pound bag) There are different shapes of seeds, like small rounds, small flats, medium rounds and medium flats and this causes different weights. We use medium rounds the most. That seems to work the best in the finger metering units. We once used some flats and it wasn't the best experience.

Most try to match their corn head to there planter. If you plant in 6 rows you ideally want a 6 row corn head. The reason for this is when you use a different size head (like a 4 row) you will have row spacing between the passes that are not uniformly spaced and have difficulties combining. For the past 12 years we have planted with 6 rows and combined with a 4 row header. If you make two passes with the corn planter to make 12 rows, it will take 3 passes with combine. You will have 2 rows from your first pass of the planter and 2 rows from you second pass. This combination is doable, but you need to keep the spacing between your planter passes as close to what you are spaced at as possible. So if you are on 30 inch rows you want to keep it at 30 inches. It doesn't combine well if that gap is larger or smaller. Now if we would use an 8 row planter, this would not be an issue because it would take two passes of a 4 row head to harvest the one pass made by the planter and any extra gaps between planter passes will always be on the outside of the head. My dad's cousin plants with a 12 row and combines with an 8 row and has the same issue that we have, but they make it work.

I hope this make sense. Ask if you have any more questions.

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

For your bu/acre question corn metering is done (atleast the way we do it) by plants/kernals per acre which would be on average anywhere from 28,000-38,000. Hope that didn't create more questions.

[putsie]

Thanks guys, those answers did help me undestand a lot better. I've never heard of the seeds/acre thing before, interesting. The I think I got a handle on the metering system. Matching up the planter and header makes more sense now. I can see where GPS and auto-steer has made planting a lot easier these days (if you got it). I suppose if your planting with 16 rows, you probably got enough acres that your not going to be using a 6 row combine anyways.

Ok if I can ask a couple more questions in reference to the toy planters I got sitting here. On the old IH 800 4 row planters there is an individual seed box on each row. Then there are 2 boxes across the front and a large center box. Are the front boxes dry fertilizer as well as the center box? Moving on to the John Deere 7200 12 row. There is liquid tanks for fertilizer across the front and then 2 boxes per row. Are the front set of boxes for dry fertilizer or could you double up the seed capacity?

Thanks again for the reply's guys. I appreciate that you spent some of your valuble time writing those lengthy posts to educate me

[70ds]

On the IH the large center box is for seed. I believe the IH is the first one with a bulk type fill. I believe the other boxs are for fertilzer or insecticide. On the deere I think one is for seed and one if for fertilizer.

[putsie]

Now that you say that. I do seem to recall a photo some where that I saw where a farmer was changing out the drum on the front of a IH which was to do with seed metering or different seed shape or something of that nature. Does that sound right?

[steiger9330]

I think the small boxes on the JD is for insecticide.

[70ds]

Yep the IH's had a different drums for different seed.

[774630]

just to kind of clarify your lbs per acre ?, we figure roughfly, 10-20lbs/ac.(18,000-25,000pop)but thats all dry land, for corn, 50 or so lbs for beans. but yeah its usually firgured by plants or kernels per acre.