What makes the Tempo central fill system unique is that it uses a positive air system to put the seeds in the ground, explained Clas Asknert, area sales manager for Western Canada. It delivers the seed with positive air streamed from the central fill hopper to the seed unit. From there, the positive air is used to shoot seeds into the ground.

Other planters use positive air or pressurized systems to shoot the seeds from the hopper to the small seed rows. From there, they use a vacuum system. So one part of the system pushes, while the other part sucks.

One of the benefits of using a positive air system is that it removes vibration from the equation, said Asknert.

“It’s like a pea shooter,” he said. “It’s exact.”

“For corn, this is crucial,” he added. “You get precision, even at high speed.”

Using an iPad, users enter the number of inches or even millimeters they want between each seed.

The precision placement from the PowerShoot technology remains accurate, even at speeds as high as 16 km/hr., said Asknert.

The new central-fill function will be available for Väderstad’s Tempo L planters with 12- to 24-row units, as well as for a full range of crops.

Central-fill functionality will be on the market at the start of 2021.

Väderstad’s new CrossCutter disc

Väderstad also launched its new CrossCutter disc, an ultra-shallow cultivation tool for residue management.

Creating a shallow stale seedbed not only increases the number of germinating seeds, but also reduces the amount of time needed for the seeds to emerge.

Research comparing the germination of weed seeds at six cm and four cm depths showed a 2.4-day difference in terms of germination, growth and emergence. In colder-weather regions where shorter growing seasons are the norm, gaining a few extra days is a real bonus no matter how they’re utilized.

Another bonus of the ultra-shallow disc is that it only disturbs topsoil, which helps to conserve moisture for the crop.

Asknert said the CrossCutter Disc is a good fit for Western Canada because it offers better trash management before planting or seeding.

The new CrossCutter Disc is avail- able for the disc cultivator Väderstad Carrier XL 425-625 now.

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“We’ve had a planter for quite a while now, and we can get farmers to buy into using a planter for canola,” explains Phillip Korczak, regional sales manager at Seed Hawk. “They understand the benefits of it. But usually the question they ask after that is, ‘How do I put my fertilizer down.’ And to this point, with the bulk fertilizer you need for canola, (the answer is) is some sort of additional pass or several passes perhaps.”

Eliminating the need for those extra passes is what the concept machine on display is designed to do.

“We spent a lot of time in the last decade with guys doing one-pass applications, and that’s what they want out of a planter (too),” he continues. “So we’re one of the only companies that has access to an air seeder tank on the Seed Hawk side of things, as well as a planter on the Väderstad side. So we decided to marry the two together this year. Using the Seed Hawk tank as our bulk fertilizer delivery, but yet we get the accuracy of the planter.

“With the planter you see here, if you filled up all the hoppers with canola, you have about 300 acres of capacity on the seed side, but we only had about 140 bushel fertilizer tank (with the standard Tempo planter design).”

The concept planter ramps up that fertilizer capacity pretty significantly by bolting on an off-the-shelf 660-bushel air cart, which is built in the Seed Hawk plant in Saskatchewan. The planter is one of Väderstad’s Tempo models built in Sweden. (Väderstad is the parent company of Seed Hawk.) But marrying that trans-Atlantic couple together still requires some engineering to get both machines’ digital components to work together seamlessly.

“The way we ran it this spring there are actually two separate systems,” says Korczak. “They both had their own iPad. One controlling the Tempo planter and one controlling the Seed Hawk tank.”

Of course, producers buying a new seeding rig won’t settle for that level of complexity. So the challenge for engineers is to develop a digital system that will look familiar to producers, especially those who already use Seed Hawk or Väderstad equipment, and is easy to use. So the company put this concept machine in the field to get some end-user feedback. They wanted to get a better idea what that system, and the overall machine design, should look like from an owner’s perspective.

“It (field testing) was more of a proof of concept this year,” he says. “Is this something that’s going to work? We got some feedback from our customers, is this something that you’d like? What else do we need on it to make it viable for your operation? I think we did a good job with it this spring, and we’re going to move forward with it.”

So far, however, this planter design remains just a concept, and it won’t be on the market for a while.

“The producers that have used it, some have actually asked us if they could buy it,” says Korczak. “At this point, no. But we were showing it at the demos at Ag in Motion, and people that came forward at the booth were quite interested in this combination. You get the accuracy with the planter in canola to reduce your seeding rate and ultimately put your fertilizer down with one pass.

Among those producer comments was one aimed at the planter.

“There are a couple of key features we’ve been told by customers that we need to be competitive in the market,” he says. “One of them being 15-inch spacing. The narrowest we currently offer is 17.7. We’re working on a 15-inch machine as well as central fill for seed so you don’t have to fill up individual (row unit) hoppers.”

So, will Seed Hawk/Väderstad eventually hit the market with a planter offering 15-inch row spacing and a high capacity fertilizer tank to blend the best of an air drill with the precision accuracy of a planter for canola? Korczak thinks it’s likely to happen in the not-too-distant future.

“In the next several years we could have some pretty exciting products in the market,” he says.

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These two new planters from Horsch are designed to offer growers a single machine that can seed both small-seeded crops like canola and still plant corn and soybeans, which means farmers experimenting with corn and beans in relatively small acres could now better justify the expense of purchasing a planter.

The Maestro SW 4715 is a 47-row planter with 15- and 30-inch row spacing capabilities mounted on a 60-foot toolbar. The Maestro SW 4815 is a 48-row planter with 15- and 30-inch row spacing capabilities also on a 60-foot toolbar. It’s designed especially for planting between existing rows in no-till applications.

Standing beside an SW 48-15 model, Jake Rissmann, director of service at Horsch, talked with Grainews about its features.

“We call it a split-row planter,” he said. “It’s new for full production this year. You can run canola at 15-inch spacings or lift every other row unit and seed corn on 30-inch spacings. All you have to do to lift the rows, is there’s a lever on the front of the machine, you pull the lever up, and when the fan is running it uses hydraulic oil to raise the rows.

The Maestro on display at AIM was setup with a 700-gallon front tank for liquid starter fertilizer, with two side-mounted saddle tanks that combine to add another 500-gallon liquid fertilizer capacity to the machine. It’s one of the configurations available. The planters come standard with an 83-bushel seed capacity and 770-gallon liquid fertilizer capacity. Owners can configure the main liquid tank for seed and add saddle tanks to give the unit 250 bushels of seed capacity and still carry 1,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer for extended run times, says the company.

“The two rear tanks on that machine are both 83-bushel product or seed tanks,” explains Rissmann. “We do have some dry machines, but capacity is not likely what people are going to be looking for in this part of the world, so most guys are choosing the liquid machines.”

Rissmann adds that one of the biggest advantages of using a planter for canola is that it can reduce per-acre seed requirements. And it can still produce yields comparable to those fields seeded at higher rates with a drill.

“Right now we’re seeing canola results where customers are using half the seed they normally use with an air seeder to get the same yield results at the end of the year,” he says. “For this part of the world, where a lot of guys are just getting into corn and soybeans, they need a machine to do those crops, but maybe they don’t put in enough acres to justify the machine. And that’s where the canola comes in.”

And although a 60-foot working width is pretty respectable in itself, Rissmann adds that the Maestro planters can compete with drills that offer still wider widths, because of the speed they operate at.

“This 48-row unit has a working width of about 60 feet, and guys typically plant in that seven m.p.h. range,” he explains. “Typically with a hoe drill, you might be travelling four or five miles per hour. You may have a wider width than 60 feet, which this machine is, but you’ll be running at seven m.p.h. or so, depending on ground conditions.”

Both the Maestro SW 4715 and 4815 use electric motor-driven metering units with individual row shutoff and curve compensation, hydraulic down pressure on the row units, a planter weight transfer system, and precision monitoring via ISO Virtual Terminals or Horsch monitors. The company claims they also offer the largest seed and liquid fertilizer capacities in the industry.

Other standard features on the Maestro SW planters include four pivot points on the toolbar, which allows them to closely following ground contours. Large-diameter tires improve floatation and create a lighter footprint, while helping to eliminate pinch rows.

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The trials involved corn crops in the traditional corn growing regions of the U.S., but arguably, the benefits from precision planting might be of even more importance to those growers trying corn on the prairie, where the crop is still a fairly high-risk one. The results may demonstrate how crops in general are likely to respond to better seeding operations.

AGCO claims the results of three years of testing proved that features such as the brand’s DeltaForce automatic down pressure feature, which compensates for changing field conditions, could improve the accuracy of seed placement. That in turn yielded an average improvement of 16 bushels per acre compared to fields seeded with planters that didn’t have precision planting options.

The brand says from 2016 through 2018, 20 demonstration plots were planted using White Planters VE Series planters equipped with vSet seed metering, vDrive electronic drive, DeltaForce automated down force, plus 20|20 monitoring and data management from Precision Planting. AGCO compared the timing of plant emergence, season-long plant progress and yield due to intentional differences in seeding depth, seed spacing and down-force pressure across the 10-acre plots. Location variability due to soil types, seedbed quality, compaction and tillage practices were also considered.

“Traditional spring-type down force on planters doesn’t adjust on the go like the DeltaForce, which is continually measuring ground contact for the proper gauge wheel pressure,” says Darren Goebel, agronomist and director of global agronomy and farm solutions for AGCO. “Growers can adjust their air bag systems from the tractor cab, but it’s difficult to adjust accurately as conditions vary across a field. These don’t offer the convenience of real-time automatic down-force control, which is possible with the hydraulics in DeltaForce.”

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Farming Smarter Research Manager Mike Gretzinger set out to answer the agronomic questions around using precision planters to plant canola in a three-year research project funded by the Canola Agronomic Research Program (CARP).

The project could lead to increased canola yields and improved stand establishment. The goal, said Gretzinger, was to compare yield results between crops planted with a Monosem precision planter and a traditional air seeder. It aimed to measure how much and how consistently a precision planting system could improve canola emergence and uniformity, and to determine the optimum canola seeding rate when using a planter on wide row spacing.

In the spring of 2016, the Farming Smarter team set up a Monosem seeder to plant canola. The Monosem is a high precision seeder meant for precise seed placement in both depth and spacing within the row. Seed rows were set at 12- and 20-inch spacing, canola disks were installed and the machine was calibrated for canola seed. The planter was set up with four boxes of seed and two tanks, one for 10-34-0 liquid phosphorus and the other to side band 46-0-0 nitrogen.

“We also had a complementary project that looked at the specific phosphorus rates,” said Gretzinger. “Because as you increase the spacing of the rows, you’re really increasing the amount of fertilizer you’re putting down in that specific row, so there are big implications on seed safety.”

Seeds were planted at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 160 seeds/m2 using an air drill at 9.5 inches, as well as with the Monosem precision planter at 12- and 20-inch row spacing. Liquid phosphorus rates ranged from zero to 40 kg/ha in the first year, and zero to 60 in the second. The trials took place on three sites, one in Medicine Hat and two in Lethbridge, one of which was irrigated.

As canola growers well know, canola is very sensitive to seed and fertilizer placement. One of the advantages of the precision planter is really good uniformity and seed distribution. This was revealed in the trial results. On all three sites, the precision planter tended to have the best emergence and the air drill led to the lowest emergence.

Amalgamated data from 2016 and 2017 is still being evaluated, but Gretzinger did say that the typical seeding rate of 100 seeds/m2 gives a good approximation of overall trends.

Research results

“In the phosphorus trial we still saw about 13 per cent higher emergence on average with the 12-inch precision planter than with the air and 20-inch,” Gretzinger said. “And similarily, at 100 seeds/m2 — extrapolated — for the seeding rate trial the 12-inch Monosem was about 18 per cent higher than the air drill and 15 per cent higher than the 20-inch Monosem.”

Despite good emergence, yield data was perhaps most surprising, although Gretzinger did say they tended to see the highest yields with the precision planter set to 12-inch row spacing. The numbers revealed a 21 per cent yield increase with the precision planter at 12-inch spacing, but a 13 per cent decrease at 20-inch spacing.

“We really have to pay attention to the difference between irrigated and dry land,” Gretzinger added as a caveat. “When I look at the irrigated data it looks like our yields are highest down on that lower end seeding rate.”

“Under irrigation, we didn’t need to go up to 160 seeds/m2 because we have such good growing conditions,” he continued. “The 40 seeds/m2 seeding rate gave us the best yield under irrigation for the 12-inch spacing. And the 60 seeds/m2 gave us the best yield for the 20-inch spacing.”

Gretzinger was also able to determine the maximum seed-safe rate of in-row liquid phosphorus for the precision planter. During the 2016 trials, they didn’t see any visual damage at all when liquid phosphorus rates ranged from zero kg/ha to 40 kg/ha. In the second year, they decided to increase the application to max out at 60 kg/ha, which is where they really started to see results.

“Basically, all the way up to 40 kg/ha we saw pretty steady emergence,” he said. “The precision planter on the 20-inch probably had the lowest emergence, the air drill was about the same, and that precision planter on 12-inch had better emergence again.”

“And they all kind of tended to drop down,” he continued. “The air drill dropped a little bit, but the two precision planter on the 12- and 20-inch spacing, they really dropped.”

Where emergence had been sitting comfortably at about 50 per cent, it dropped to 35. Where 40 per cent emergence was the previous average, when liquid phosphorus was increased to 60 kg/ha that average dropped to 30 per cent.

Regarding yield, there was again a really big distinction between irrigated and dry land. “The yield was lowest again on our precision planter with 20-inch spacing,” said Gretzinger. “In the middle with the air drill, and highest with the precision planter with the 12-inch.”

“On the 20-inch spacing, yield did show a decline at the 60 kg/ha rate,” he continued. “But on the yield end, we didn’t see a decline with the air drill and I think the reason behind that is because you’re on narrower row spacing so it takes a lot more product before it’s toxic.”

While the outcome wasn’t completely unpredictable, two elements did surprise Gretzinger. “First, it surprised us how poorly the 20-inch did even compared to our air drill,” he said. “But we were also surprised by how well the 12-inch has been doing compared to the air drill. If we can adapt this, it’s going to really be about making sure we nail down the right row spacing and seeding rates.”

The other big surprise was the differences seen between the dry land and irrigated fields. “We’re expecting usually to see the same trend more or less, but in this case, it was a totally different result in terms of seeding rate,” said Gretzinger. “They seem to do really well on the lower seeding rates, but only in the irrigation, and then when you move to dry land you’ve really got to bump the seeding rates again.”

“I think it’s just important for guys who are going to be doing this sort of thing to really pay attention to their operation and what they’re doing and not try and adapt something that’s really well suited for irrigation and expect it to work the same way under dryland conditions or vice-versa,” he concluded.

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The brand also claims producers could see a 50 per cent or more reduction in seed cost when using a planter for canola when compared to air seeders. Those savings come primarily from the planters’ ability to singulate seed and place it very accurately, which could permit lower per-acre seeding rates. But other features built into the planters help reduce seed input as well.

“The seed savings alone in canola gains an extra $30 to $40-plus per acre of margin,” said Jeremy Hughes, product manager at Horsch, in a press release. “Features such as individual row shut off to control seeding overlap, curve compensation, and auto row unit downforce control add even more seed savings.”

The Canola Ready Technology kit can be installed on all Maestro SW row crop planter models, which are available in 40 and 60-foot toolbar widths with row spacing of 15, 20, 22 or 30 inches.

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Frank Prince, one member of the farming family that owns the Capricorn Bay Company based in Waskada, Manitoba, said their PPS planter was the result of years of evolution, resulting in a machine that met their own needs for a single-pass, multi-crop seeder. They wanted something that could handle everything from large-seed crops like corn to canola and wheat.

“We’ve grown corn and soybeans for 15 years, roughly, and we’ve done lots of multiple things to planters to try and put fertilizer on all in one pass, and it’s never worked,” he told Grainews. “There are lots of other issues with 15-inch spacing toolbars, for ease of working on, for residue, for rocks. So we just said why not put two rows on there and have a row for fertilizer.”

Aside from wanting a do-it-all toolbar that could better deal with those field-surface and maintenance concerns, there was also a need to reduce the downtime from refilling.

“Most planters have a 100-bushel seed tank on them,” he added. “That’s fine for corn, and in canola it’s awesome. But in soybeans it’s 80 to 100 acre fills. For our big fields, all you do is fill all day. So I said why not pull a cart that you can put on a sizeable amount of seed? We picked 400 (bushels) because you can do a half (section) with soybeans with that and make it commercialized for Western Canada.”

With Three PPS planters now working in fields, Prince said the family is ready to build and market it directly to farmers.

The toolbars are equipped with narrow, twin-row Harvest International row units, which are capable of working at field speeds up to 10 m.p.h. Sorensen Welding in Minnesota builds the toolbars for the company.

“We’re going to do 40, 60 or 80 (foot working widths),” he said. “We’re working on an 80 and you can have whatever row spacing you’d like on it. I think the most common spacing would be 15 inch. Guys will do corn soybean and canola with them.”

However, the planter on display in Regina was set up with twin-row openers spaced 20 inches apart that place seed in alternating seven and 13-inch row spacings. And Prince notes that configuration has worked well for their farming needs.

“This one’s twice as easy to work on as the other ones,” he said. “The one I designed has lots of room to work on it. It’s seven inches between two rows and then 13. If someone wants to do wheat or peas, I know it works.”

The drill is able to seed and place one or two fertilizer blends in the furrow. The front bar lays down the main fertilizer application, making it a true single-pass seeder.

“This one is set up for mid-row between the two seven-inch (spacings),” said Prince. “So it’s about 3.5 inches off (the seed). If you wanted 10-inch spacings and regular mid row, you can see it’s easy to slide them (openers) over.”

With the PPS planter, Prince thinks many farmers could do away with an air drill entirely and seed everything with this one machine.

“I see this two ways,” he explained. “You have your small farmers that seed 4,000 acres that, in Manitoba, are going to be one-quarter corn, beans, canola, wheat. You had to use a planter for corn. It made sense to use it for beans and canola because of the seed savings. Wheat was your trouble. You still had to have an air seeder for it. Now you can cut that out.

“If you have a big farmer who has 12,000 acres and 4,000 of it is canola, they can buy the machine just to do canola.”

Anyone interested in the planter can contact the Prince family farm by phone at 204-576-3500.

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Seed Hawk, which has been 100 per cent owned by Swedish equipment manufacturer Vaderstad since 2013, has been renamed Vaderstad Industries effective Tuesday.

The two companies said the name change “reflects the fuller integration of the Seed Hawk brand within the Vederstad Group, bringing precision and quality together.”

The change was telegraphed earlier this year when Seed Hawk adopted red paint for all its seeding systems, in line with Vaderstad’s colours.

However, Vaderstad Industries CEO Nigel Jones said in a release, “the Seed Hawk seeder will continue to be sold under the same equipment name and by the same local people our customers know and trust.”

Jones was named Seed Hawk’s new CEO on Tuesday last week, having served as its vice-president of operations for three years and as vice-president of research and development since late last year.

As CEO, Jones replaces Birgitta Ewerlof, who had been on the job since May, having relocated to Saskatchewan from her post as Vaderstad’s acting interim manager of components in Sweden.

Seed Hawk was founded at Langbank, Sask. in 1992 by brothers Pat and Norbert Beaujot with Brian Kent and Brian Dean. Norbert Beaujot went on to set up SeedMaster, a separate company, in 2002.

Seed Hawk first partnered with Vaderstad in 2006 when the Swedish company sought out a manufacturer to help develop a large-scale seeder for markets in Eastern Europe.

“The joining of our businesses will positively impact the advancement and availability of our equipment for farmers in North America and around the world,” Jones said Tuesday. — AGCanada.com Network

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Their ability to operate at high speeds is the result of incorporating the SpeedTube seed tubes from Precision Planting into the design of the 9800VE models.

“With SpeedTubes on White Planters 9800VE Series planters, they can now achieve precise seed placement of corn at speeds nearly double traditional operating speeds,” said Larry Kuster, senior product specialist for tillage and seeding, in a press release.

With traditionally-designed seed tubes on planters, high field speeds create a ricochet effect as seed travels down the tube and bounces once it hits the furrow, resulting in inconsistent seed spacing. Instead, SpeedTubes control the seed all the way from the meter to the furrow and allow it to drop and remain in place. To do that, feeder wheels at the top take the seed from the metering disc and pull it into a flighted belt that places it in the bottom of the seed trench. The belt speed increases or decreases with planter speed and seeding rates.

9800VE models come standard with 12-volt electric meter drive motors that eliminate the problems associated with mechanical drive systems and help maintain accurate seed spacing. They also use a central fill hopper with a 90-bushel capacity.

The planters are available in 12-, 16- and 24-row models.

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The 2160 gets Case IH’s latest planting technology too, so it’s capable of working at up to 10 m.p.h. (16 km/h) in the field. High-speed capability, it seems, is quickly becoming an industry standard for planters, as are tracks on large models because of the floatation they offer.

“The 2160 Early Riser planter with steerable Rowtrac Carrier System provides up to 74 per cent increased floatation over a wheeled carrier to reduce soil compaction,” said Tony McClelland, Case IH planter marketing manger, in a press release. “With more square inches on the ground, toolbar weight is evenly distributed to improve planting performance in areas of the country with soft, loamy soils and/or wet planting conditions.”

The Rowtrac system is able to pivot on three different axes: pitch, roll and yaw (which sounds a little like the description of airplane controls). That, claims the company, allows the tracks to maintain consistent ground pressure when following uneven terrain. The Rowtrac design won Case IH an AE50 design award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). And because it’s also steerable, getting the planter through tight spaces or over narrow field approaches is a little easier.

All 2000 Series planters, including the 2160, create what Case IH claims is the only flat-bottom seed trench in the industry to improve placement accuracy. Meter drive is electric and the planter uses hydraulic down force.

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