A closing wheel assembly is provided for a row unit agricultural planter. The planter is configured to open a trench in the soil and the closing wheel assembly is configured to close the trench. A resilient flap is provided for firming and leveling the soil returned to the trench by the closing wheel assembly. Pivotally mounted offset closing wheels are also provided.

A methods for soil clod detection within a field is provided herein and can include receiving, with a computing system, data indicative of terrain variations within a region of an agricultural field. The region of the field is comprised of one or more adjacently positioned segments. The method can also include generating, with the computing system, a mean reference line. The method can further include calculating, with the computing system, a segment height for each of the one or more adjacently positioned segments. The method can also include determining, with the computing system, a presence of an object based on a deviation of one of the one or more segment heights being greater than a threshold height from the reference line.

A gauge wheel load sensor for an agricultural planter having a row unit that includes a pivotably mounted gauge wheel and a down pressure controller for controlling the down pressure on at least a portion of the row unit. The load sensor includes a mechanical element mounted for movement in response to the downward force applied to the row unit; a fluid-containing device containing a movable element coupled to the mechanical element for changing the fluid pressure in response to the movement of the mechanical element; and a transducer coupled to the fluid-containing device for producing an output signal in response to changes in the fluid pressure. An energy storage device, such as an accumulator, may be coupled to the fluid-containing device for receiving a limited amount of fluid in response to changes in the fluid pressure to damp pressure spikes in the output signal of the transducer.

A method of controlling the downpressure on an air seeder that has a plurality of seed assemblies and a plurality of fertilizer assemblies each applying an adjustable downforce, wherein the method includes keeping a total downforce applied by all of the plurality of seed assemblies and all of the plurality of fertilizer assemblies less than a maximum downforce. The method may also include keeping the downforce applied by each of the fertilizer assemblies less than the downforce applied by each of the seed assemblies.

The present invention relates to a plough implement comprising a main frame supporting a plurality of first ground engaging tools, wherein the plough implement comprises a depth adjustment apparatus for moving a first ground engaging tool of the plurality of first ground engaging tools with respect to the main frame to enable adjustment of a working depth of the first ground engaging tool.

An agricultural implement includes at least one row unit having a plurality of support members, each of which is pivotably coupled to an attachment frame or another of the support members to permit vertical pivoting vertical movement of the support members, and a plurality of soil-engaging tools, each of which is coupled to at least one of the support members. A plurality of hydraulic cylinders are coupled to the support members for urging the support members downwardly toward the soil. A plurality of controllable pressure control valves are coupled to the hydraulic cylinders for controlling the pressure of hydraulic fluid supplied to the cylinders. A plurality of sensors produce electrical signals corresponding to predetermined conditions, and a controller is coupled to the sensor and the controllable pressure control valves. The controller receives the electrical signals from the sensors and produces control signals for controlling the pressure control valves.

In a crop harvesting machine there is provided a pair of hydraulic float cylinders for a header relative to a vehicle, where a float pressure to the cylinders is directly controlled by an electronic control supplying a variable control signal to a PPRR valve arrangement to maintain the float pressure at a predetermined value. At the set pressure a predetermined lifting force is provided to the header. A position sensor is used to generate an indication of movement and/or acceleration. The electronic control is arranged, in response to changes in the sensor signal, to temporarily change the control signal to vary the lifting force and thus change the dynamic response of the hydraulic float cylinder. In order to reduce static friction so that the system can react quickly, an arrangement is provided for causing relative reciprocating movement in an alternating wave pattern between the piston and cylinder.

A mobile agricultural machine includes a row unit having a furrow opener mounted to the row unit and configured to engage a surface of ground over which the mobile agricultural machine travels to open a furrow in the ground. A furrow closer is mounted to the row unit behind the furrow opener and configured to engage the surface of the ground to close the furrow. A furrow sensor system is mounted to the row unit and configured to sense characteristics relative to the furrow opened by the furrow opener and generate a sensor signal indicative of the characteristics. The mobile agricultural machine can further include a control system configured to determine a furrow quality metric corresponding to the furrow sensed by the furrow sensor system based on the sensor signal and generate an action signal to control an action of the mobile agricultural machine based on the furrow quality metric.

System for adjusting the depth of a trench opened by a row unit (10) of an agricultural planter. The row unit (10) includes a trench depth adjustment assembly (90R) configured to modify the trench depth. The trench depth adjustment assembly (90R) includes a depth adjustment body (3044) pivotally connected via a pivot (92) to a frame member (14) of the row unit (10). An electric motor (3030) is operable to cause rotation of a shaft (3034) operably coupled with the depth adjustment body (3044), whereby rotation of the shaft (3034) causes the depth adjustment body (3044) to pivotally move about the pivot (92) thereby changing a position of contact of the depth adjustment body (3044) with a gauge wheel arm (54), thus changing the amount of upward travel of the gauge wheel (50) with respect to a trench opening disc (62) and thus the depth of the trench.

A downforce control system for an agricultural ground engaging unit provides individual control of each agricultural ground engaging row unit by providing a proportional pressure control valve connected to the retracting chamber of a double acting cylinder which varies the upward force produced by the retracting chamber of the cylinder against a constant counteracting downward force produced by an extending chamber of the cylinder, the valve control based on a comparison of a sensed resultant downward force on the agricultural ground engaging row unit and a predetermined target downward force.