[AT] Check planting

[Cecil Bearden]

It may be more than some wanted to know, but as an agricultural 
engineer, it is sorta fascinating.

Cecil in OKla

Francis Robinson wrote:
>     As I said we never check planted here on the farm but I have done 
> "almost" the same thing. When I was farm manager at the Shelbyville IN Garst 
> Research Farm we used a cable trip system to position our micro-plots. We 
> strung the cable that had nylon balls mounted on it across the field. We 
> kept it on reels on wheels. The original check wire was wire with knots 
> every few feet based on the row width to be planted. Ours was multi-strand 
> cable with the nylon balls spaced generally 20' apart but we could use a 
> different cable if we wanted a different size plot. We mostly planted in 17' 
> long plots with a 3' space between each plot. We planted 4 rows at a time 
> but the actual plot was 2 rows wide. Two employees rode on the planter and 
> dumped a little packet of seed in open special hoppers with each hand. The 
> packets were held in long trays for each two rows. Special rotors in each 
> hopper spread the seeds evenly around them so that proper feeding and 
> spacing was maintained when the nylon ball on the cable tripped the sensors 
> the electronic system started the flow of seeds. Each packet had an exact 
> amount of seed in it, just enough to plant 17'. It traveled the extra 3 feet 
> not planting then it was tripped by the next nylon ball. One of the 
> employees would jump off when we got to each end to move the cable then 
> climb back into their seat to feed the hoppers I always drove the tractor) 
> :-)    The entire 4 acre plot existed on a virtual map of the field on the 
> computer which showed the code number for each packet of seed. I said that 
> the plots were two rows wide but in reality if you looked at the computer 
> map the plots would have been wider but we did the plantings based on two 
> rows. The two employes would be dropping different varieties from each other 
> much of the time and the computer kept track of what belonged in each plot. 
> There just was no room for error. It was the same when we combined it. We 
> used a three row header but only ran two rows at a time except for some 
> buffer corn around the outside of the plot. We would combine 20' of two rows 
> of a plot and stop at the 3' open space . The combine didn't have a tailings 
> section in it. The corn went into a little hopper where we took computer 
> reading for total weight of yield, moisture and test weight then it dumped 
> into the main grain tank. Then you let off of the clutch and combined 
> another 20 feet and stopped again... and on and on etc. The combine cab was 
> pretty crowded with the computer console and wire running all over. You also 
> had to watch the printout for any anomalies. One of the more common ones was 
> a piece of "green stuff" getting stuck across the edge of the moisture 
> sensor and elevating the reading. The plots were replicated many times 
> across the 4 acres and most of the time only the computer really knew which 
> variety was being combined at any given time. I could read the code numbers 
> as they came up but even back then I couldn't have remembered them.   :-) 
> It usually took two of us at least 2 days to harvest a 4 acre plot. We took 
> turns with one running the combine and the other walking the plots ahead of 
> the combine with a portable computer recording information on dropped ears, 
> down stalks etc. We had three four acre plots in Indiana, three in Kentucky 
> and three in Ohio plus several on the research farm itself. It was an 
> interesting job but was prone to be a bit boring at times. I often got into 
> strange activities like crawling down corn rows on my hands and knees with 
> hypodermic syringes injecting various pathegens into the base of cornstalks 
> to see what it would do to them. I usually refer to those years as my "mad 
> scientist days".   :-)
> More than you wanted to know...   :-)
> 
> 
> --
> "farmer"
> 
> Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the
> well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are
> showing a new road.  ~Voltaire
> 
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana, USA
> robinson at svs.net 
> 
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