View from the Cab: Back at it
By: Kent Casson
A sense of normalcy returned to my world last week as I attended my first in-person farm meeting in a long time.
It felt good to see other growers in a room even if it meant staying safe by social distancing. Precision Planting did a great job holding the annual Winter Conference. Due to the current times we are in, the company decided to have the event at several locations across the country instead of one big event in Tremont.
Winter Conference sites around here included the Precision Planting PTI research farm at Pontiac and the Hettinger farm near Philo in Champaign County. I attended the latter since Pontiac’s session was filled up. It was a scenic drive to Philo last Wednesday in the bright sunshine.
One important takeaway from conference was the importance of singulation accuracy since seed skips and doubles will cost a farmer money. Singulation is the meter dropping one seed at a time. Precision Planting has a seed tube that accurately reads doubles and ignores dust which may enter the tube. This would have thrown off readings in the old days.
We were advised against planting in wet conditions, which often results in too much compaction out in the field. This could result in smaller ear size.
“Managing downforce is a big part of the equation,” said Precision Planting’s Doug Wiegand.
Experts suggest running the tillage tractor straight with the rows instead of going at an angle. This helps the planter work more efficiently when traveling across the soil. Proper downforce management has a significant effect on yield. If a planter gets too heavy or too light on downforce, yield potential starts to decline.
This year’s new Precision Planting product is called Reveal, a row cleaner in beta testing for 2021. The new concept for field residue management is actually mounted to the planter frame instead of the row unit resulting in a clean path ahead of the unit. This allows for better flotation and ground engagement with less wear on the row units.
Comments