At the Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference (CTC) a couple of weeks ago Bill Lehmkuhl of Precision Agri Services, Inc. was interviewed to talk about planter technology and what to expect this coming planting season.
At the conference, John Fulton, with Ohio State University Extension, talked about technology for monitoring nutrient applications and Bill from the team here at Precision Agri Services spoke about planter pitfalls and what to look out for when it comes to planting efficiently this spring.
In a short interview that aired on the Ohio's Country Journal Midday show during CTC Bill and John spoke about how important the planter setup is and about the last-minute things you should think about before planting this season. You can listen to it here.
What last-minute things should you think about before planting?
Almost everybody is ready to go at this stage but with a difficult winter behind us, full of supply chain issues and complications, a lot of people might not have gotten access to any of the newer technology that was released.
If you find yourself in this position then now is the time to use what you have to the best of your abilities.
By now you should have already looked your planter over and checked both its mechanical aspects and its technical aspects. If anything is damaged or not working as it should you should try to get it fixed as soon as possible because you’re running out of time before the season starts and parts are still limited.
Make sure you get somebody to look at your firmware too so you know it’s ready to go and won’t fail you during your planting.
It’s also important to check on your differential corrections. If you’re using RTK or another guidance system make sure you’re paid up in advance so you won’t lose the signal halfway through your planting schedule.
Why is planter setup important?
You don’t want to start your planting process and then run into complications, do you?
This is why proper planter setup is so important. If you check your planter and make sure it’s all working the way it should then you’ll be ready to go all the way through your planting process. But, if you don’t check and double-check every aspect of your planter then things might go wrong.
Because of the supply chain issues, parts will be hard to come by during the planting season, which is why it’s important to have spare parts on the shelf ready to go in case of an emergency.
If you wanted to get planter-wide technology you’re unfortunately going to have to wait till after spring at this stage because of the supply issues we’re currently facing.
One of the main things to keep an eye on is your seed disk openers as they tend to have a lot of issues. It’s important to keep relevant parts on your shelf so you can replace and repair them when you need to.
Advanced agricultural technology is fantastic to have during the planting season but a poorly maintained planter will easily defeat any piece of agricultural technology so maintain your planter all the way through the season.
If you missed the Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference (CTC) and want to find out more about it to secure tickets next year then check it out here.
Do you have some planter maintenance queries that need answering right away? Get in contact with our team of experts today, we’d be happy to answer your questions.
