# SmartFirmer



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

New tool from Precision Planting.

Regards, Mike

http://www.agweb.com/article/new-tool-instantly-creates-soil-maps-at-planting-naa-sonja-begemann/


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Oh lord, yet one more thing to shut the entire planter down.

Several years ago one of the local BTO's got a little too big for his britches and decided he needed two 16 row planters running at once, so he bought another brand spanking new Great Plains to match his other one.

Covered a LOT of ground that spring, thinks were looking all rosy and bright until it started to come up, seems something was wonky with the brand new variable rate controller, things came up really heavy to a little light to barely half a crop, a LOT of ground got tore up and re planted. Turns out whoever was running it believed the monitor more than his own eyes when he was checking seed and fertilizer levels in the tank as most of it was planted at a half rate.

I think they tried another year running two planters, eventually sold the older one and went back to one with the owner running it. Would have thought somebody would have caught the fact that the seed seemed to be covering a lot of ground.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Like any new tool its only as good as the loose nut behind the wheel.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

I had the idea of incorporating a temp sensor into the seed firmer to map soil temp conditions at planting. Never got around to doing anything and now I really don't care too.


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