Case IH Agriculture Equipment, Inc.
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Press Materials
WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN BUYING A PLANTER
RACINE, Wis. (June 20, 2012)
“The planter is the most important piece of equipment on your farm, hands
down,” says Bill Hoeg, Case IH planter sales and marketing manager in North America.
“If planting isn’t optimized – if the seed isn’t planted in a way that maximizes yield
potential – that immediately impacts your profitability and should be the No. 1
consideration when purchasing a new planter. No. 2 is planter reliability: You can’t
afford to have your planter slow you down during your limited planting window.”
Hoeg cites six agronomic principles of optimized planting growers should
consider when buying a new planter: proper seed depth; uniform seed depth across the
planter and throughout the field; good soil-to-seed contact; uniform soil pressure all
around the seed; accurate seed population; and accurate in-row seed spacing.
He says a lot of planter manufacturers focus only on in-row seed spacing and
accurate populations, “because quite honestly, accurate population and in-row seed
spacing are the easiest to impact. But those are only two factors. A planter should be
able to deliver on all six agronomic principles right out of the box. It shouldn’t require
hundreds of dollars of additional equipment on each row to improve planter
performance,” Hoeg advises. “Don’t get caught up in the hype.”
Planter Agronomics
“Agronomically, it’s not complicated. If you plant at the right depth, seed will
emerge faster. Plant at a uniform depth, and it’ll all come up together. That gives you
the best opportunity to maximize yields. Good soil-to-seed contact provides the best
environment for seed to germinate. Uniform seed pressure is the hardest to affect, but
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700 State Street, Racine, WI 53404 USA
What to Look for When Buying a Planter / Page 2
you want to influence soil pressure on all sides of the seed to maximize moisture
conductivity to the seed,” he adds.
When it comes to seed population and accurate seed spacing, Hoeg says every
planter has operating rules. “As long as you stay within those rules, you can get
respectable results. I suggest the Early Riser® planter does a better job, because we
have a wider working range within each of those rules. We have a pull-gauge wheel,
which allows the row unit to operate much more smoothly in rough fields. We also have
the largest diameter seed disk. A bigger disk doesn’t have to turn as fast, so we can
remain its optimum operating range even in adverse conditions. Therefore, we can plant
a wider range of populations and seed size more accurately at faster speeds.”
Maximum Field Time, Minimum Maintenance
According to Hoeg, a planter should also be designed to maximize time spent in
the field. “The more time you’re forced to spend handling daily maintenance and making
adjustments, the less time you’ll have to plant.
“And once you’re in the field, how many adjustments will you have to make every
day to keep your planter operating at its best? Are the seed meter and vacuum/air
systems sensitive to humidity changes, adverse ground conditions or different seed
sizes? If there are four different seed plates you have to change just to handle corn
hybrids, that’s going to slow you down,” he notes.
Operation, Location and Farming Practices
Hoeg says the size and type of operation are also key factors. “If you have
livestock to care for in addition to cash crops, you may need to size the planter
differently, because there are fewer hours in the day available for planting. A lot also
depends on the type of crop being planted. With some crops, you can’t use a 90-foot
planter, like with cotton, so you’ll need to cover more acres with a smaller planter.
Transport width may also be a determining factor for growers who have multiple farms
and different locations – or for those who simply have to deal with a narrow bridge
nearby.”
Other considerations are based on individual farming practices. “What inputs do
you want to use, how do you want to apply them and in what types of soil? How much
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700 State Street, Racine, WI 53404 USA
What to Look for When Buying a Planter / Page 3
time do you have to get it all done? What system do you want to use to fill the planter so
you can minimize non-planting time? Are there going to be multiple operators running
the planter? If so, ease of use becomes even more important.
“Even if you have big square fields, and there aren’t any waterways or other
obstructions that cause you to plant in irregular rows, you will want to take advantage of
the advanced systems that bigger planters offer,” Hoeg continues. “You’ll likely want
AFS (Case IH Advanced Farming Systems®), row shut-offs, driving guides and mapping
capabilities to help you utilize every square inch of ground. Irregularly shaped fields with
waterways and terraces only enhance the need for these advanced systems. There are
all kinds of nuances that factor into which planter model and options you need. That’s
why Case IH offers different models, configurations, options and capabilities, from 15foot to 90-foot Early Riser planters,” he concludes.
For more information about Early Riser planters, including demonstrations on
how to create an ideal seed trench, how to achieve early, even emergence, and the
benefits of pull- vs. push-gauge wheels, call your local Case IH dealer or visit
www.CaseIH.com.
Case IH is a global leader in agricultural equipment, committed to collaborating
with its customers to develop the most powerful, productive, reliable equipment –
designed to meet today’s agricultural challenges. Challenges like feeding an expanding
global population on less land, meeting ever-changing government regulations and
managing input costs. With headquarters in the United States, Case IH has a network of
dealers and distributors that operates in over 160 countries. Case IH provides
agricultural equipment systems, flexible financial service offerings and parts and service
support for professional farmers and commercial operators through a dedicated network
of professional dealers and distributors. Productivity enhancing products include
tractors; combines and harvesters; hay and forage equipment; tillage tools; planting and
seeding systems; sprayers and applicators; site-specific farming tools and utility
vehicles. Case IH is a brand of CNH (NYSE: CNH), a majority-owned subsidiary of Fiat
Industrial S.p.A. (FI.MI).
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For more information, visit www.caseih.com.
700 State Street, Racine, WI 53404 USA
What to Look for When Buying a Planter / Page 4
Photo caption:
When purchasing a new planter, the No. 1 consideration should be if the planter plants
the seed in a way that maximizes yield potential, according to Bill Hoeg, Case IH planter
sales and marketing manager in North America. The second consideration should be
planter reliability.
700 State Street, Racine, WI 53404 USA