There’s a lot of news circulating right now about the concept of multiple-hybrid planters. The Practical Farm Research Team at Beck’s Hybrids started working with one it in the spring of 2012. Initial results were published in the fall of the same year. Since then, farm editors have been all over it, seed companies are planning for it, and growers are now asking about it.
Kinze has been involved in the Beck’s Hybrids project since the very beginning. The first year they converted a Kinze 3500 planter. Then in 2013, Kinze built a custom 3600 Twin Row Planter specifically for their multi-hybrid study. Site-specific hybrid and seeding rate prescription files were imported into an AgLeader the Integra controller with SeedCommand to manage it.
Two Years of Results are now Documented.
Beck’s research, conducted in 2012 and 2013, shows fields planted with the Kinze 3600 Twin Row, with the multi-hybrid planting setup, show an average yield increase of 9.5 bu/acre and a return on investment of $54.24/acre across both low and high productivity zones. Even with numbers half that much, the increase in yield and potential profits is huge. And it will be even more important if corn and soybean prices continue to stay in their current price ranges.
What’s the Next Step?
We’ve already taken it. The next multi-hybrid planter you see from Kinze will come with dual electric 4000 Series seed meters positioned in tandem above the seed tube. Different bulk seed tanks will feed different seed varieties. Every change in meters will be instantaneous because each meter will automatically turn on or off as the planter leaves one soil zone and enters another. And there will be no skips during the transition. Seed planting singulation and placement? 99.5% accurate.
Interested?
Watch a short video below on how you can optimize yield potential by planting the best seed type for each zone in your field. Then don’t forget to send it to your friends. This next Kinze innovation is just around the corner, and this blog is one way to make sure you see it coming. Have a great 2014 planting season!