07/09/2007
New Kinze Meter Goes to the Field
The first thing you notice in the field with the Kinze EdgeVac planter is the sound of the vacuum blower. It drew quick attention from the farmers helping Farm Journal test the new meter last spring.
Kinze supplied an 8-row prototype planter for Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie to evaluate in the 2005 Farm Journal Test Plots. Pulled with a tractor supplied by McCormick, we took the planter to four farms, putting the meter through its paces with corn and soybeans.
With both crops, we tracked seed placement and emergence to evaluate meter performance. The corn crop was watched the most closely—using several seed sizes and shapes. Skips, doubles and misplaced seeds were tallied.
“The meter performed pretty good across all the seed sizes and shapes," Ferrie says. “As with other vacuum meters, it seemed to plant round seeds a bit easier than flat seeds. We used seven seed sizes ranging from a 40 lb. R4 round to a 60 lb. F1 flat.
“Even with that range, we had very few doubles—one or less per 1/1000th acre," Ferrie adds. “We also had fewer misplaced seeds than we’ve experienced with some of the other vacuum meters."
Ferrie attributes the fewer misplaced seeds to less ricochet in the seed tube and less seed tube bounce. “Part of that is just because the EdgeVac meter releases the seed out of the bottom of the plate, dead center in the seed tube," Ferrie explains.
Overall, the EdgeVac supplies a wider range of plantability—for numerous seeds—than a finger pickup meter. The vacuum setting hovers about 20", which is higher than for most other vacuum planters on the market. Kinze provides preliminary vacuum and brush settings for various seed sizes and shapes. When those guidelines are followed, little adjustment is needed.
“That’s exactly what we were going for," says Bill Heick with Kinze. “We wanted a meter setup that could plant a wide range of crops and seeds. Unlike with a mechanical meter, we wanted to be able to fine-tune in the field. However, if you use the recommendations we offer, you shouldn’t have to make many adjustments."
The heart of the EdgeVac system is a floating seed disk that self-adjusts to accommodate changes in the sealing surface. An open-center, non-concentric design vacuum cover fits over the disk. Both the disk and cover are made from engineering grade urethane. The seed disk isn’t always turning in the same circular pattern, so there are no significant worries about wear.
The meter has fewer moving parts than many other vacuum meters. There are no seals, spools or retaining devices. Adjustable seed singulator brushes eliminate doubles and triples before the seed is released from the edge of the disk.
At press time, the EdgeVac has disks for corn, soybeans, grain sorghum, acid-delinted cotton and dry edible beans. This spring, a low-rate corn disk (for low planting populations) will be added. The company will also offer disks for small corn (popcorn or lighter seed corn) and hill-drop cotton on an experimental basis.
The vacuum meter is widely available in 2006 for about half of the Kinze planter models. Those included are the 3110 and 3140 three point; and the 3500, 3600 and 3650 Twin-Line design. The remainder of the planter line will offer the vacuum setup next year.
The entire line will continue to offer mechanical meters, as well. At this point, there is no kit to retrofit existing planters with the vac setup, which costs about $2,000 more than the mechanical route.
Planters larger than 16 corn rows or 32 soybean rows will need two blowers, which will bump the price.
The 8-row planter we used required about 9 gal. per minute more hydraulic flow at 2000 psi to run the vac system, compared with a mechanical meter. Lubrication recommendations are the same for both types of meters. “We advise the use of graphite," Heick says. “And if you go with a seed treatment, we recommend using talc."
Although we didn’t have it on the prototype we used last spring, the 2006 EdgeVac planters have an electronic vacuum gauge in the cab. This spring we hope to put the planter meter through its paces with a wider range of seed sizes.