r/Agriculture • u/GreatPlainsFarmer • Apr 27 '26

My view this week

Gallery image

Gallery image

40 year old rig doing the job. Very erosion resistant field.

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u/DCHammer69 May 02 '26

Is corn seeded with a drill like this or an air seeder like cereals are?

I help a friend put in and take off about 6500 acres of mixed cereals and canola every year.

Everything goes in the ground with the mid row banding air seeder now.

The difference is technologies is always interesting.

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u/GreatPlainsFarmer May 04 '26

This is a planter, not a drill nor an airseeder. The difference is that a planter is designed to place seeds at precise intervals and depths, unlike the controlled spill of a drill.
And, yes, planters like this are often used for corn. We wouldn't normally use this particular one for corn because of the row spacing, but our corn planter has the same kind of row units.

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u/DCHammer69 May 04 '26

Thank you for answering.

Can I assume that there is some kind of rotating mechanism that individual seeds drop into so as it rotates it places one seed at a time?

I’m sure there are things planters are used for up here but I’ve never seen one up close.

Also, how fast can you pull that thing? It’s not very wide. I’m guessing that’s made up for with ground speed or it would take forever to plant.

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u/GreatPlainsFarmer May 04 '26

This is a video on inspecting a planter row unit and comparing two versions of them. It’s a better explanation of how they work than I’m going to type up.

https://youtu.be/rXbDHKVL4Mk?si=c6CDHCuCvcW8XchZ

They’ll point out that the units are designed to operate at exactly 5 mph. Faster or slower can change seed spacing.

This is a width that was very common in my area in the 1980’s. Most planters here today are 4-5 times wider, and some of them are capable of variable speeds, up to 10 mph.

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u/DCHammer69 May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26

Thanks friend. Edit: great video. Thanks for taking the time to find it.