Proper care and maintenance of your Kinze seed meters is an important part of optimizing your planter’s performance and ultimately, yield potential. Both mechanical and vacuum seed meters should be removed from the planter and cleaned out when not in use. Remember that storing your meters in a clean, dry and rodent free environment helps reduce the potential for damage.
Before each planting season, inspect the seed discs, singulator brush, crowder brush, wall brush, and air inlet screens. Identify common wear points and clean or replace parts as needed. Want to really make sure your meters are achieving optimum performance? Consider taking them in for seed meter testing. This service, available at many Kinze dealerships, is a great way to check meter performance and determine whether changes to operational settings – such as adjusting travel speed – can improve accuracy and performance in the field.
Using proper seed lubricants is another highly recommended way to optimize the performance of all types of seed meters. Kinze recommends the use of powdered graphite in all meters. Graphite promotes seed flow, provides lubrication for the seed meter and helps dissipate any static charge buildup. Of all the available dry seed lubricants, graphite has proven to be the most effective and the easiest to use (it requires no mechanical agitation). Talc powder can also be used if a drying agent is required.
For more recommendations on how to properly remove and replace seed meter components, download the maintenance section of the Kinze manual below or consult your Kinze planter owner’s manual.