Influence of Planter Width on Double Planted Acreage In Cotton Fields

Many cotton producers are looking for new ways to speed up planting, whether it is getting the seeds in the ground during a narrow planting window or to increase the number of acres in their farming operation. One particular time saving investment that producers are considering is purchasing wider planters. Decisions farmers must make when purchasing a planter are the width and whether or not to invest in Automatic Section Control. Automatic Section Control technology for planters eliminates double planting in fields in areas such as end rows and point rows where planter overlap is unavoidable. This technology uses a GPS signal as an indicator of where the planter has already been and will shut off individual planter units or planter sections when planter overlap occurs.

A study was conducted in 28 fields, totaling 1,122 acres, to investigate the relationship between planter width and double planted areas in irregularly-shaped fields. Real-time RTK GPS position of the planter and planter status were recorded every 10^th of a second. High accuracy planting maps for each field were generated for three different planter widths, 38-, 57-, and 76-foot, using ESRI’s ArcMap software. The percentage of double planted area was found to be dependent on field geometry as well as the planter width. The number of planter passes required for each field decreased as planter width increased, however the percentage of double planting area increased. The total double planted acres across all 28 fields were calculated to be 13.8, 31.0 and 44.1 for the 38-, 57-, and 76-foot wide planters, respectively.