How to Calibrate a Grain Drill: Metering the Seed

In this installment, Jason walks through, step-by-step, how to meter the seed.

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This is the fourth installment in the “How to Calibrate a Grain Drill” series where farmer Jason Carter walks through his method for calibrating his no-till grain drill for multi-species cover crops. In the previous installments, Jason discusses the necessary tools and conditions to carry out this method.

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To get the proper seed distribution, farmers need to determine how open their metering roll should be. As a place to start, Jason references the chart on his drill’s bin, where wheat at 25 pounds/acre on the half rate speed is about five-eighths open.

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“So right now we have the drill set up at five eighths opening– of course this isn't going to be where we need to be, but once we do the calibration methods, we can fine tune it from here,” says Carter.

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Next, he puts his cover crop seed mix in, directly over the unit that he’s going to use for calibrating. He puts just enough seen in to cover the seed cup, disconnects the seed tube from the unit, and collects the cover crop seed in a cup to weigh.

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“Now we will turn the drive tire 20 times, and make sure you turn it in the correct direction. Then we will take the cover crop seed that we collected in the cup after the 20 turns, and we're going to weigh it in grams.”

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To watch the full "How To Calibrate A Grain Drill" Series CLICK HERE

Keep following along on www.SoilHealthLabs.com for the upcoming blogs discussing Jason’s calculation method to finish calibrating his grain drill for multi-species seed.

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