You can not rely on the notch setting even from year to year being the same seed depth. Lots of things can and do change!!

No one should go more than 50-75 ft into any field without stopping to check seed depth!!

First check should be leaving the row units down and looking behind the vee opener and in front of the closing wheels. This will give you a quick static check for initial settings only.

 When you get close then plant another 100 ft or so at normal planting speed and now stop and go back and dig up seed to confirm your depth.

A planter is a little bit like water skiing - the faster you go the more you come "on plane" and this will change from worked to min or no till ground. Dig up seed and confirm you are at 1-3/4" nominal depth +/- maybe 1/4" depending on conditions, etc.

This is a very important 15 minutes a day which can have a + or - effect on your entire farm year! Seed depth and seed depth consistency is important. This is why we see more and more of our new smaller dia swept back tooth row cleaners being used in worked ground behind a field cultivator to get the lumps and dislodged rootballs out of the way so the gage wheels are not constantly having to climb over them.

jmho.

Jim at Dawn