Planting – Miscellaneous
Reexamination Certificate
1997-03-14
2004-05-11
Batson, Victor (Department: 3671)
Planting
Miscellaneous
C177S139000, C222S077000, C111S903000, C111S926000, C111S018000, C111S064000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06732667
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to grain drills used for planting grains, such as wheat and soybeans and, more particularly, to grain drills providing an accurate rate of metering of the planting of seed.
BACKGROUND ART
Numerous manufacturers sell grain drills which are utilized extensively throughout the world for planting grains, such as wheat, soybeans, oats, barley, etc. Grain drills are towed by tractors and plant wide swaths, such as 10 or more feet, with a single pass. The towing of the grain drill with a tractor provides the power for the metered planting of the seed into the furrows. Grain drills further may be either of the no till type, which do not require previous plowing and discing of the ground, or the till type, which require previously plowing and discing of the ground.
Commercially available grain drills are highly sophisticated machines which provide tremendous efficiency enabling farmers to plant large tracts of land with grain. A typical. soybean farmer may plant a thousand or more acres a year with a single grain drill. Thus, anything which adversely affects the operation of a grain drill has tremendous impact on the economics of farming using grain drills.
Commercially available grain drills do not contain on-board devices which permit the farmer to accurately determine the rate of planting of seed per acre in terms of weight per acre. A grain drill has an acreage counter which indicates approximately the number of acres which have been covered during planting. However, commercially available grain drills do not have on-board weighing devices which permit the weight of seed, such as wheat, soybeans, oats, barley, etc. to be accurately determined while planting is ongoing.
Seeds may be purchased in bags having a uniform weight, such as 50 lbs., which permits the farmer to load the hopper of a grain drill with an accurately weighed amount of seed which ultimately permits the farmer to determine the rate of planting of seed in weight per acre by dividing the total number of acres which have been planted during the time that the seed was planted by the number of preweighed bags used to fill the grain drill seed hopper times the weight of seed per bag. The filling of the hopper with preweighed bags of seed is cumbersome, requires the opening of individual bags involving substantial time, and prevents the farmer from purchasing seed in bulk. Seed purchased in bulk is cheaper which would result in a net savings of the cost per acre for planting if the farmer could accurately determine the weight of the bulk seed which would permit the foregoing calculation of pounds of seed per acre to be made to enable the farmer to determine the actual rate of planting in terms of weight per acre. However, the purchase of seed in bulk does not provide the farmer with an accurate determination of the weight of seed which is placed in the hopper. Therefore, after the filling of a grain drill hopper with seed from a bulk source is completed, while the farmer can determine approximately the total number of acres which were planted from the acre counter, there is no accurate measure of the weight of the seed which was placed in the hopper from a bulk purchase or container.
Thus, farmers today who use state of the art grain drills are faced with a constant dilemma of how to accurately determine the rate of planting of seed in terms of weight per acre to accurately control the rate of planting which permits optimization of crop yield. That dilemma either requires the purchase of seed in preweighed bags with its attendant inefficiencies and additional expense or makes it impossible for the farmer to calculate the weight rate of planting of seed in an accurate manner which results typically in not planting the grain seed at the ideal weight rate per acre which is necessary to optimize yield.
Furthermore, even if the farmer knows precisely the weight of seed which is placed in the hopper of a grain drill, there is no current mechanism for “on the fly” determination of the rate of planting of seed in pounds per acre as the drill is operated before the seed hopper is emptied. Commercially available grain drills have a mechanical calibrated metering device which has a linear scale having increasing numbers which represent an increased rate of planting. However, because of the variation of the size of seed which is planted and the different types of seeds which are planted with a grain drill, the numerically graduated scale for controlling the rate of planting provides nothing about the weight rate of seed being planted and provides information on only a relative rate of planting.
Experienced farmers develop an understanding of the desired rate of planting of seed in terms of weight measure per acre. If the farmer accurately plants seed with a grain drill at the optimum rate, the yield of the resultant crop is optimized and further, the overall cost of seed to obtain the maximum crop yield is reduced. On one hand, if less than the optimum quantity of seed per acre is planted, the resultant yield will be less than the optimum yield resulting in the farmer realizing less income per acre than would be realized if the optimum rate of seed was planted per acre. On the other hand, if the rate of planting of seed is too great per acre, a decreased yield is realized, which is less than the optimum yield, resulting in the waste of seed which represents a substantial expense to the farmer. Also, the resultant plants may be down because of their high density, which makes it difficult for the farmer to combine the plants at harvest. For example, if a farmer is planting 1,000 acres of soybeans with a grain drill and makes a mistake of overestimating the rate of planting of seeds at a rate of 5 lbs. per acre, a total of 5,000 lbs. of wasted seed occurs which represents a substantial expense over $1,000.00 with no return on investment and a possible lessened yield because of over density in planting.
Additionally, with current state of the art grain drills, while the rate of deposition of seed may be varied by changing the setting of the control of the relative rate of planting of seed, there is no way for the farmer on the fly to determine the actual rate of planting of seed by planting only a small area. As previously described, the only way to precisely determine the weight rate of planting seed is to accurately count the number of preweighed bags of seed which are placed in the hopper and after the entire hopper is planted, the total weight of seed in the hopper is computed by multiplying the number of bags used by the weight of seed per bag and that total weight is divided by the number of planted acres. This process is time consuming and wasteful because if the rate of planting of seed is set either too high or too low, all of the land which was planted with the seed from the full hopper is not optimally planted at the right rate to maximize the yield and to reduce the expense of seed to the minimum amount per acre.
Additionally, while commercially available grain drills may contain a sight glass for viewing if there is seed in the drill, such viewing devices do not provide a view when the drill is close to being empty. This forces the farmer into the situation that it is possible for the hopper to be empty while the farmer is continuing to plant seed. The resultant acreage must be reseeded or worse, may not be seeded at all until after the seed germinates. In any event, because of the pressures that are involved with weather conditions to plant seed with a grain drill at the right time, the farmer requires the ability to know precisely when additional seed must be added to the hopper which may necessitate a helper to go to a seed supplier to obtain seed at the end of the day after the seed supplier is closed. If the farmer cannot accurately determine what the weight of seed is in the hopper at all times, it may be impossible to determine with enough lead time that additional seed must be purchased from the seed supplier or otherwise obtained from the farmer's storage of seed.
Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP
Batson Victor
Ken Von Muenster
LandOfFree
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