Bourgault Industries Ltd. is a leading global Canadian manufacturer of technologically advanced seeding equipment. One of Bourgault’s latest developments is the innovative Air Planter™ system.
Operating a Bourgault Seeding System equipped with the Air Planter™ allows you to direct seed or plant into heavy residue in no-till scenarios, while seed placing phosphate fertilizer and banding nutrients like nitrogen and sulfur mid row. Why buy a planter and a small grains drill when the Air Planter™ can effectively accomplish both!
How the Bourgault Air Planter™ works
The Air Planter™ has a Bulk Fill System that transfers seed from the air tank to the XP Meters™ located on the frame of the drill.
Other than an extra fan, the Bulk Fill System uses no moving parts to gently transfer seed to the XP Meters™. The singulated seed is closely counted by the sensor at the exit of each XP Meter™, displaying the performance of each run on the Apollo Monitor. This allows the Operator to immediately investigate any abnormal performance issues such as skips, doubles, or plugs.
- The Bulk Fill Fan creates airflow to transfer seed from the Air Seeder Inductor to the XP Meter Reservoirs™.
- Air pressure is created providing positive pressure at each XP Meter™ and delivers seed to the boot.
- When the reservoirs on the XP Meters™ are full, the column of seed prevents further air and seed flow.
- Seed is carried from the Inductor Box attached to the bottom of the PDM Pro™ Metering Auger Sump to the XP Meter Reservoirs™.
XP Meters™
The XP DUO™ Meters (eXact Placement™ Meters) use positive air pressure to hold the seed onto the planter plate. The same positive pressure delivers the seed evenly to the opener, thus gravity and hilly fields are not an issue for the accuracy of the Air Planter™.
The electric meter drives are controlled independently through the Topcon Apollo System to provide turn compensation and eliminate overlap at the headlands.
Sensors respond to each seed that leaves the meter, giving you complete visibility of Air Planter™ performance.
This unique dual meter can deliver singulated seed to two narrow-row units or a single wide-row unit!
XP Meters™ Singulation Performance
Thorough performance testing and comparisons to competitive vacuum and other pressure planter units has shown that the XP Meters™ performance metrics are at the forefront in terms of seed-to-seed spacing accuracy, as well as very low seed skips and doubles, which makes every kernel and seed count. Singulation performance is the percentage of seeds released as a single seed, i.e. 99% means that 1% of the seeds were released as multiples, or as skips
CANOLA >97%
SOYBEANS >98%
CORN >99%
ParaLink Row™ Coulter Openers (PLR™)
The PLR™ Opener is designed to work in conjunction with the tried-and-true PDM Pro™ Volumetric Metering System and the optional positive pressure Air Planter™ System.
- The parallel arms, in conjunction with the outside cleaner/gauge wheel, maintain extremely accurate seeding depth in all terrain conditions.
- The coulter disk is set on 7° lateral and 10° vertical compound angles to ensure effective soil penetration and consistent seed placement, regardless of the soil conditions.
- The outside cleaner/gauge wheel is positioned directly in-line with the planter boot and seeder boot, on the opposite side of the coulter, for optimal seed depth accuracy.
- The packer wheel follows behind the firming wheel to pack the loose soil that has filled the furrow to create a beneficial environment for quick and even germination.
- Packing pressure can be adjusted from 40 to 80 kg per wheel. This is set by manually adjusting the tension on the coil spring mounted on the packer arm.
- An adjustment arm controls the gauge wheel position by moving the locking knob to a different setting at ¼” increments.
- The seed is pressed into the moist seedbed by the firming wheel, ensuring excellent seed to soil contact even in dry conditions.
- Planter boot.
- Seeder boot. Dry starter fertilizer can be directed through the air seeder kit to the seeder boot, and liquid fertilizer can be directed through the front of the planter boot.
More detailed information about Air Planter™ system is available on Techsystems LLC website as well as on the official Bourgault Industries website