French drill maker Agrisem offers sensors on its Chief precision drill that measure soil moisture, soil temperature and crop residue in the seed furrow while drilling, so that seed can be placed at the best depth, Future Farming reported.
The heart of the system is the SmartFirmer from Precision Planting, part of AGCO: a seed firmer that runs in the furrow with a temperature sensor and a near-infrared (NIR) sensor inside. It continuously records moisture and temperature and estimates the share of organic matter and crop residue in the furrow, mainly so that residue does not hurt germination when maize or soybeans are direct-drilled or mulch-drilled. Precision Planting introduced it about 10 years ago as a development of the Keeton seed firmer devised by Kentucky farmer Eugene Keeton in the 1990s, and it can be retrofitted to existing drills.
The SmartFirmer only measures. Other parts act on the readings: DeltaForce adjusts coulter down-pressure hydraulically on each row unit; SmartDepth uses an electric spindle motor to fine-tune drilling depth; and FurrowForce uses a load cell and air bellows to set how firmly the closing discs and wheels press soil over the seed, pressing out air in residue-heavy furrows so seed makes better contact with moist soil. A 20/20 terminal in the cab shows temperature, furrow moisture, depth and residue.
The technology is expensive. The six-row Chief used since 2025 in the Dutch National Fieldlab for Precision Farming costs about €69,000 in basic form; SmartFirmer on three of the six rows, with DeltaForce, SmartDepth and FurrowForce on all six, adds more than €21,000. That is why the Dutch machine has sensors on alternate rows, each sharing its readings with the neighbouring row. Australian company MPT AgTech offers similar in-furrow sensing.
Even emergence starts with seed in moist soil at a uniform depth, which is why in-furrow sensing is moving from research plots onto commercial drills. The story was reported with photographs by Koos Groenewold and René Koerhuis.
Photo: Miquel Pujol Palol / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Future Farming
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