----- Original Message -----

 

 

From: Hooper, G. Thomas

 

 

To: Adam Lemler

 

 

Cc: Woodley, Randy ; Rulon, Lee R ; [email protected] ; Beck, Sonny ; Herr, Jim

 

 

Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 10:43 AM

 

 

Subject: RE: Beck's soybeans and Kinze meters

 

 

 

 

 

Adam,

 

 

I appreciate you sharing your problems with our soybeans this planting season.  I wish you had not had the problems, but do welcome the opportunity to try and reduce these types of issues in the future.  I have forwarded your email to Jim Herr our Processing Manager.

 

 

 

 

I think that I agree with all of your conclusions as to probable issues that contributed to the planting problems.  The one that you picked out as causing the biggest issue (large seed size) is one that unfortunately we are somewhat limited in our ability to control.  The varieties you mention 367NRR, 325NRR and 321NRR all tend to be some of the largest beans we sell each year.  While this size issue causes us problems in packaging (big bags, bigger minibulks and limited units in a seedbox), it is the same characteristic that we appreciate in the fall.

 

 

 

 

Since we pick soybean varieties for yield (versus the temptation to select for smaller seeded varieties when we sold by the pound), we many times now get a variety with bigger seed size.  This bigger size means many times this varieties average well over 50 pounds per unit delivered to the customer, even though they only have 130,000 soybeans in each unit.

 

 

 

 

I will propose one other issue that we have discussed with Kinze in the past.  And that is another plate between the two they now sell.  It seems that the 48 cell plate will work ok on beans if the brushes are brand new on some of these middle of the road beans.  These middle of the road beans are ones that we think would possibly plant better with brushes that have some wear, but still plant ok, however are not aggressive enough on beans that are in the smaller size range for the bigger plate.

 

 

 

 

We certainly don’t claim to be planter experts, we leave that to Kinze, however we also have some grower experience using that planter type to plant our own crop here at Beck’s.

 

 

 

 

If there is something else you would like for us to do or research better ways to deliver a product to you I am happy to visit further.  In addition we could spend much time discussing the many things we are trying to assist planting in conditions that add to the problems.  One example would be adding a little talc with the graphite to help in the humid conditions.

 

 

 

 

Again thanks for letting us know you concern.

 

 

Tom Hooper

 

 

Sales Manager

 

 

317.684.6006 cell

 

 

 

 

From: Adam Lemler [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 7:00 PM
To: Hooper, G. Thomas
Cc: Burns, Jim; Woodley, Randy; Rulon, Lee R
Subject: Beck's soybeans and Kinze meters

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Hooper,

 

 

 

 

 

    I hope I am sending this to the proper individuals. I was unsure of who to contact. Please forward it if I made an error.

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

   I need to inform you about some seed population issues I had this spring with Beck's soybeans. The main trouble I had was with 325 NRR with a 2700seed/#( I have misplaced my lot #), although the 334 LL beans caused me some trouble as well.

 

 

 

 

 

    I have been using kinze bean meters since the mid 90's so I feel I have a handle on what is an acceptable performance and how to adjust my rates accordingly. This year, however, I was quite frustrated with my inability to pin down my populations. I no-till into standing corn stalks with 30" rows. Before I noticed any problems I had planted approximately 130 acres of beans (Beck's 367 and a competitor's number). I generally aim for 115,000-125,000 population ( less for Beck's treated, more for a non-treated bean). The 367's were spot on with the desired pop.

 

 

 

 

 

    After changing over to the 325's I planted a 17 acre field. With an 8 row planter I should have run out close to finishing the field, yet when I opened the planter boxes I was only 1/2 empty. I estimate my actual planted pop. @ 93,413 vs. the 127,962 desired in this particular field. What I found to be the problem was larger seeds were sticking in the cells and essentially plugging/preventing those cells from planting. When changing the seed plates over to the larger 48 cell, I could see almost 60% of the cells had beans stuck in them. Having planted Beck's 321's in the past I just assumed these were bigger seeds even though the bag indicated 2700seed/#.

 

 

 

 

 

    So I changed the plates and adjusted my planter chains accordingly to allow for the large cell plates. I noticed right away, that my monitor was showing a larger number and this became obvious when calculating acres between fills. I was " over planting" with the larger plates. This became very worrisome to me when planting my 334LL's. I had the same problem with the small plates having the beans "stick", and the large plates overplant. I was getting low on my 334LL seed and did not think I would be able to finish the field. I found that my setting the planter for a 124,407 population, ended up being an actual 148,223 planted(large cell). To try to make it finish I lowered my planter to a 95,410 pop. which I figured a 20% overage to give me an actual 114,492 planted. This bothered me quite a bit as I had more than enough seed ordered(Liberty Link), yet I felt I would have to wait for more after running out due to poor planter singulation ( I finished with less than 1/2 bag remaining, I was planning on 3-5 bags left out of 63 acres).

 

 

 

 

 

    Again, I have used the Kinze meters enough years to know that it is possible to be almost exact in population, and know full well that larger seeds need the larger plate. That was not my problem. I will list in order what I think was causing this:

 

 

 

 

 

1) Seed size- I feel that even though the bag indicated an average of 2700 seeds/#, the larger seeds looked almost kidney bean shaped, and stuck in the unit (small cells), while the small seeds double planted(large cells). There was a huge range of seed size from smallest to largest. I feel this was the primary cause to my problems.

 

 

 

 

 

2) Tacky seed- I found that the treatment was tacky which would induce the large seed to "stick". I do use graphite(almost too much), and this helped mitigate the problem somewhat, but did NOT eliminate it.

 

 

 

 

 

3) Humid conditions- This would go along with tacky seed sticking.

 

 

 

 

 

4)Brush wear-I am sure that having new Kinze brushes installed in the meters would have helped. But again, my experience with the Kinze meters tells me this was not a primary problem. The brushes I used had only 140acres/row on them. I have seen good singulation out of a very wore out meter, and even then I should have been able to allow for population discrepancies given that the seed was uniform in size.

 

 

 

 

 

    I do know of one other neighbor in the area having similar problems with Beck's 321's this year. He also is set up with Kinze. I told my dealer about this,( Herm Rettinger), but wanted to inform you of my problems directly. Please let me know if you want anymore information from me. I will try to find the lot #'s I copied down from the bags, it is here in my paperwork somewhere. Perhaps Beck's may need to start separating beans into grade sizes? At >$50/ bag I get very upset when I cannot pin down my seed populations.

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

    I have had a good experience in dealing with Beck's for many years, and hope to keep this relationship going.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your time,

 

 

 

 

 

Adam Lemler