I’m a potato farmer, and when I see a problem, I want to fix it.
As every potato farmer knows, there is never any shortages of challenges. We tackled the problem of set roll a few years back with the invention of the press wheel, and this led to the Seed Sensing Technology (SST), which is coming into its third commercial season. This work is a passion of mine, combining my love of developing new products, potato farming, and helping farmers achieve their economic and environmental goals.
The SST combines a press wheel and a sensing system. The press wheel ensures consistent placement of the seed, and the sensing system continually monitors seed spacing. The interface is completely user friendly, with simple graphics showing you the status. If seed spacing goes out of the desired range, a change of colour and/or audible alarm will alert you to the problem and you can identify the cause of underperforming rows and correct it.
For larger farms, managers can use mobile devices to remotely monitor multiple planters in real time. They have access to the same data and alerts as the operators, ensuring they stay informed of any issues as they arise.
This real time feedback enables operators to maximize each planter’s efficiency for varying conditions. The system also replaces the need to watch multiple cameras or to stop and dig up rows to check for misses.
I wanted every step of integrating the press wheels and SST to be as easy as possible. We ship you a kit with clear instructions, and farmers can install the press wheels on the planter themselves. The technology is easy to install in the cab. If you encounter any issues, don’t hesitate to reach out—we’re here to help. We pride ourselves on delivering top-notch customer support, with either myself or Jamie always available to assist you.
To use the monitoring software, you enter basic information including the field name and desired spacing into the system, and you’re ready to go.
Maintenance is simple, and the sensors have rechargeable batteries that are easy to access and generally last through an entire season before they need recharging.
To assess the efficacy of SST, Bluefield Seeding Solutions contracted Genesis Crop Systems and Contour Consulting to conduct field trials on 10 fields from 2022 to 2023. On these farms, a planter equipped with SST planted strips alongside strips planted conventionally. They captured drone imagery of the fields post emergence and used software to analyze the spacing of the potato plants. The overall analysis included hundreds of thousands of plants and determined there were 3% fewer misses or gaps using SST than without.
What does 3% fewer misses mean? An average of 421.7 fewer gaps/acre than the conventionally planted field. If you can plant the same number of seeds on fewer acres, you need less fertilizer and product, as well as less fuel for seeding, applications and harvest. It also ensures you aren’t putting product down where there’s no plant to take it up. This reduction of skips also reduces carbon costs at an estimated 25.17 kg CO2 equivalency per hectare. You’re saving money while protecting the environment.
The return on investment is strong. If a 1000-acre farm reduces misses or gaps for misplaced seeds by a conservative 1.5%, the reduced input costs alone associated with that will pay for a 6-row system in the first year. Typically, we see an average of 2.5% reduction in gaps on farms that adopt the Seed Sensing Technology.
Reach out to us if you’d like more information on how SST can fit into your operation.
“We have been using the press wheels for two seasons now. I’ll admit I was sceptical at first, but figured an increase in speed was worth it. On our farm we find the seed sensing technology even more beneficial than any increase in speed. Being the operator and instantly knowing if you have a problem on any row so you can make adjustments. No longer using rakes to uncover seed and measure spacing — now you just put your hand in the ground where the seed should be and it’s there.”
Brad Robertson
Marvyn’s Garden Inc.
