A checklist for making sure planters are ready for planting comes from Burrus Hybrids’ researcher coordinator. Chip Turner tells Brownfield Ag News he understands the urgency to get planting once the weather is right, “I grew up on a family farm and my dad had a saying, ‘If you don’t plant it right you’re behind the whole season.’ You know, why give bushels away right out of the gate? If you spend some time now at the start of the season adjusting your planter, you’re adding bushels.”
Turner says growers need to make sure they’ve done everything they can to make their seeds germinate. The first thing he does is make sure his planter is level, “You know with the planter in planting position and it’s moving across the field, is the tongue generally level with the ground? That has an impact on seed drop. Seed tubes are designed to be used with the planter sitting level.”
Among other things, Turner checks the planter’s disc openers, “Make sure that they’re not worn out. I check the contact between the disc opener blades. Make sure that’s correct so that we’re forming a nice ‘v’ seed trench.”
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