Uniform Emergence Matters

Uniform emergence is the best predictor of a fully optimized yield. Plants that emerge even one day late start off at a considerable disadvantage. These smaller plants will be competing all season with the plants around them for nutrients, moisture, and sunlight.

Late emerging plants will be shorter, have less leaf mass, and have smaller root systems than their neighboring plants, causing more stress all season. They never really catch up to their early emerging neighbors and have less resources to grow big healthy fruit that you can harvest.

Multi-year plot studies performed at the Precision Technology Institute Farm have consistently shown losses associated with late-emerging plants in corn.

• 1 Day – 15% loss
• 2 Days – 78% loss
• 3+ Days – 90% loss

As you can see, not achieving uniform emergence comes with a very real cost. Ultimately, you have to know whether updating your planter makes sense for your farm, but the increased yields can often pay for the upgrades pretty quickly.

Better emergence through technology. 

The tech behind Precision Planting’s range of products is incredibly advanced, but the principles behind them are very simple. If you want your plants to emerge uniformly, you have to plant them uniformly. You also need to monitor the system to make sure everything is working just as smoothly on the last row as it did on the first row.

There are just a few things that you need to account for to make sure each seed is getting the best chance to achieve uniform emergence and the best possible yield.

1. Uniform Seed Depth.

Uniform seed depth is the biggest contributor to uniform emergence. Every ¼” difference in depth can cause 12 hours of delay in emergence. That subtle difference can cause a real hit to your yields when it comes time to harvest.

DeltaForce from Precision Planting monitors and adjusts the amount of downforce on each individual row unit up to 200 times per second to ensure that each seed is planted at the exact depth you specify. DeltaForce uses hydraulic pressure to move each row unit up or down independently to make sure each seed is at the optimal depth without compacting the soil around your seed. No matter how uneven your field is.

2. Proper Singulation and seed spacing

Skips and doubles kill your yield. The worst part is that often a skip in one area means a double in another. If your current planter is running at 90% singulation, that means you could be losing yield on 20% of your field.

Upgrade your yield with Precision Planting’s vDrive system. BENCO routinely achieves up to 99.8% sigulation rates with vDrive & vSet. When coupled with the 20/20 monitoring system & SeedSense, you can see the exact seed spacing and singulation rate in real time as you plant each row.

20/20 will work with vDrive to automatically adjust planting rates for speed changes and can shut off individual rows for irregularly shaped fields. Each row unit will also adjust independently as you go around curves to maintain proper seed spacing so inner rows aren’t overplanted and outer rows aren’t underplanted.

3. Consistent application of starter nutrients

In-furrow fertilizers give your plants an incredible head start. Having those nutrients directly at seed depth gives you an incredible performance boost. Tests have shown that in-furrow fertilizer is 1.5x more effective than broadcast fertilizer. That means you can use less fertilizer without sacrificing yield.

The OnSite Flow Monitoring System gives you real-time information on flow rates for each row when applying in-furrow fertilizer. You know you are giving your plants the exact amount of nutrients your crop needs to get the best start and provide the best yield. And it’s surprisingly affordable to boot.

4. Even Seed-to-Soil Contact

If you have air pockets or contaminants around your seed, the seed may not be able to get the uniform amount of moisture it needs to germinate at the same rate as the rest of your field.

Precision Planting’s Furrow Force uses a two-stage system to close your furrow and ensure not only that there are no air pockets around the seed, but that each row is compacted perfectly to retain moisture at the seed.

The first stage uses notched wheels that close the furrow from the bottom up to eliminate air pockets. The second stage’s stitch wheels firm the soil and can actively monitor and adjust pressure on each row independently to ensure you get enough soil density to lock in moisture, but not so much that you impede early root growth.

5. Know Your Rows

Even the most advanced technology can get clogged. Know everything that is happening through every inch of your fields in real time with Precision Planting’s 20/20 monitoring system. Your 20/20 monitor is the brains that run the system and allow you to make live adjustments as field conditions change.

Your 20/20 system will allow you to get a full picture of every field with data on planting, spraying & Harvesting.

• Planting Data tracked by 20/20
  • Population, seed depth, singulation, skips/mults, seed spacing, furrow moisture, soil temp, and more are all tracked and stored by 20/20.
  • All data is mapped by GPS to give you a high resolution map of your field that can be used to optimize every row.
    
    
• Harvest Data tracked by 20/20
  • Add Precision Planting’s YieldSense to your combine for the most accurate real time yield data on the market today.
  • When combined with your planting data, this can give you and your agronomist the best picture possible of how each field performs and how to get the best yield from every acre.