Okay.... Tell Me Again!

How do I adjust my seed drill?!?!

I just pulled it up from the meadow and was looking at the chart, and can't decipher what it means....

I am planting 5 acres of oats, and want to put them in at 65-70 lbs to the acre.

Hopefully that makes sense?!?! Any help would be appreciated!!!

Thanks! Bryce
<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto18875.jpg"/>

Here is a picture of the "seed flow chart" that is inside the lid. It is a Case Drill, 8 foot.
<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto18876.jpg"/>

Something is badly worn out on the two adjusting levers, sooo, if you can imagine the "gears" inside each of the seed drop holes, how much should each one be showing? Here are pictures of the gears at two different positions... (don't worry, I have cleaned all that junk out of there.....
<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto18877.jpg"/>

<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto18878.jpg"/>

You have identified the problems, the adjusting levers get worn and the dial really doesn't mean much.....

Dad would close down the meters and then open thrm to what he wanted, so the levers were always pulled from the same direction.

Typically for oats folks want 3 bu to the acre planted, but you might not want a full crop for some reason, alfalfa seeded with or so.

Your meters will end up looking more like your top photo, half or less open.

Beyond that you need to fill with a measured amount of oats, drive a known amount of feet, and see if you get close to what you wanted.

Take -good- notes and improve for next year on the setting.

So, here is how to start out:

Plan on planting 30 lbs per acre on your 5 acres.

Set the drill up as best you can guess for that.

Put 5 bu of oats in the hopper.

Plant 2.5 acres.

Look in the box, see if you used about 1/2 the oats in the box.

Finish planting the 5 acres, watching if you about run out at about the time you are done planting.

Then repeat, replanting the same 5 acres with the same setting.

In case it planted less than you thought the first pass, you can up the rate. Or if it planted too heavy, you can cut back for th second pass.

You will know how your drill plants from this and in future years get real close to just right on a single pass when you set it about double this half rate.

It is common to set the drill at a best first guess, plant too darn thick, run out of seed, and not much to do then. With the half rate you can recover from the guessing and learn if your drill plants too heavy or too light.

Paul

Based on what is shown, it appears seed flutes should be totally exposed to get that seeding rate. First seed box photo would seed approx. 25-30# / acre, second photo maybe 50-55# / acre.
Can you show a photo of the seed adjustment lever? Guessing open it the max?

That drill will have a high and low gear ratio so you need to be sure you know which gear your in. Here is a clearer pic of the table for you
<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto18880.png"/>
Mine is pretty close if you close the setting and slide it open to where you want to be without going past. On mine if I go past then back it is off by quite a bit.

Okay, so how do I figure out gear ratio?

Okay, I will go mess with it and get some more pictures!

Okay! Not sure I totally understand, but this is a great start!

I have the oats in 50 lb bags, so I should be easily able to regulate how much I put in the box.

I never really did a lot of research, but EVERYONE I have talked to around here in my area has said that 2 bushels to the acre is about right, so, must be because of location or something??

If I understand correctly, you are saying that the "flutes" (I think is what those gear things are called?) should be about 1/2 way open, in order to seed the 30 lbs per acre?

Googled - oats lbs per bushel

response was 32

Okay, here are more pictures!

Showing the levers FULLY CLOSED (Notch 35 out of 70 on left, 20 on right)

<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto18881.jpg"/>

Showing the Flutes FULLY CLOSED
<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto18882.jpg"/>

Showing the levers FULLY OPENED (Notch 65 out of 70 on left, 45 on right)

<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto18883.jpg"/>

Showing the Flutes FULLY OPENED

<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto18884.jpg"/>

Something else I wanted to ask was ground speed? How fast/slow should I be going when this thing is operating? I will be pulling it with the Super C, so:

2.4
3.8
5.0
??

I am thinking 3rd gear at a lower throttle? Like 4.5 mph? Maybe?

It's on the end by the wheel. Just follow the drive from the wheel and you will see the gears where you can change it. You should be able to figure out which ratio is which, or get a book that will tell you. I don't have the book or I would post it. You could ask on the Case page, there are folks there that will send you a scan of the page as that's how I got the pne I shared.

Me, I would want close to 90 lbs per acre seeded, so following the oats line across, I see I can't get there on the slow setting.

So I'd put the gear set in the higher range, and then use notch #30-35 to seed my 3 bu of oats per acre.

The trouble is accounting for the slop in the linkage. Always be openning (making bigger) the flutes so you are consistently on the same side of the slop. If you need to close it up some, close it up too much, and then open to where you want to be.

For your 2 bu, you would want to be in the high gear set, and at notch 25 or so. Again, depending on the calibration errors.

Or you could be in low range and notch 40 about. Eith will spit out about 2 bu an acre.

Also, as rough as your boxes looked for rust and corrosion, they will seed a little light until you get many acres planted and things polish and shine thrmselves up. Your oats seed will drag just a bit ogpn the rough surfaces and slow planting rate just a tad.

Your pic 0f fully closed is not closed. Closed is when you can't see the feed. You need to free that up some more and find out why those levers are not kore closely matched. I think you will be feeding too kuch even at the closed setting you are showing.

Bryce, that 2 bushel per acre is for harvest for grain and the older varities if planted too heavy would go down, flat, on ground and could not be picked up. Years ago on drikk bissed one step in the setting and instead of the 2 bushel per acre it put on 4 bushel per acre and that was the best oats we ever had and it was all harvested for grain, the oat hay as is talked about now back when I was raising oats you could not give away oat hay. That 2 bushel per acre was also underseeded with a forage crop and too heavy would prevent the forage from growing as it should. If you are only going to make hay off of it with no underseeded forage then raist it to nothing less than 3 bu per acre or even 4 bushel per acre. And closed down you cannot see any of the flute at all.

Okay, so listen to this....

A buddy told me how to calibrate my drill and "pretend" to seed with it, to figure out what was what.

Here is what has happend:

I did my math, and if this is right, for seeding 2 bushels to the acre, I should be putting on a pound of oats for every 622 square feet (or very close).

Next I went, and figured out that for every rotation of the rear tire (only doing half of the drill) I was seeding 21 square feet. Okay, so 21 square feet times 29 is 609 square feet!

SO, now I put oats in the hopper, and closed the flutes all the way. Jacked the drill up, engaged it, and turned the right wheel 29 revolutions. THEN I went and collected all of the oat seed that was on the tarp and measured it.

In theory, if I was set where I needed to be, then it should have been 1 lb of oats, or very close, right?

Well, it was 2 lb's EXACTLY. So it is seeding out twice as much as it should be, on the fully closed setting. Now what?

As far as I can tell, there is no way to close it down more, but I will continue trying to mess with it...

Anyone have any advice? Maybe just leave it and put twice as many oats on? Will need more seed if I do that though...

6 oat seeds per horse track.

Bryce, in addition to the good information the others gave one thing that wasn't mentioned is the gates on the individual feeds. You will want them in the upper position which is closest to the feeds. This makes a higher "hump" for the seed to climb over. If the gates are in a lower setting you will put on quite a bit more seed. The smaller the seed, the higher the gates need to be. Lower settings would be for beans, etc. Mike

theres big oats and little oats you set your drill for the size thay are it isnt allways the same every year just thought i would throw that out there.

That sounds about right based on what I see in your pics. As I said, fully closed the feed flute will be fully out of the feed slot. Yours are half way in yet, so your at about the mid way settings on your graph. So depending on if your in high or low gear your rate should be whatever the mid setting is. Get those feeds freed up and working propperly and you will be close. You might be in high and can change to low, but I don't think that will cut your rate in half.