A seed meter assembly for a seeding machine. The seed meter assembly has a metering member mounted for rotation about a meter axis and driven to rotate in a direction of travel, the metering member having an inner surface configured to receive seeds and an outer surface and apertures passing through the metering member between the inner surface and the outer surface at a radial distance from the meter axis. The seed meter assembly also has a seed delivery mechanism configured to discharge the seeds from the seeding machine, and a loader including at least one non-cylindrical loader surface movable into and out of a position in which the loader surface is disposed at the radial distance adjacent one of the apertures.

The present disclosure relates generally to precision agriculture. More specifically, the disclosure relates to systems for metering and distributing seeds in planting fields. The disclosure refers to a pneumatic seed metering device that provides an optimized seed distribution for soybean planting. The meter releases the soybean seeds by vacuum cutting and letting the seeds fall by gravity. A seed disk is equipped with a plurality of seed holes spaced radially along a seed passage region, and the seed disk drive is performed at a peripheral region of the seed disk. The plurality of seed holes are arranged in a single row with a distance between two consecutive seed holes being in a range of 2.1 to 3.5 times the diameter of one of the seed holes, the diameter of the holes being defined in a range of 3.5 to 4.5 mm.

One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for metering assembly for an agricultural seeder. The metering assembly can be configured for quick and easy removal and replacement, where merely the assembly is removed without disassembling other parts of the seeder system. An improved coupler, in conjunction with a threaded knob device, allows for quick and easy access to the assembly, for removal and replacement in a metering tube. A visual indicator can be disposed on the end of a rotating shaft to provide a user with a quick confirmation that the assembly is properly rotating during operation.

The invention relates to a metering device (5) for granular material, in particular seeds and/or fertilizer, where the metering device (5) comprises a metering housing (9) having at least one inlet (8) and at least one outlet (11) for the granular material and two side walls (10) that are arranged spaced from one another, where a metering wheel (13) with end faces (13a) each pointing toward the side walls (10) is arranged between, firstly, the inlet (8) and, secondly, the outlet (11), and between the side walls (10), that are arranged spaced from one another, on a shaft and is connectable in a force-fit manner to the latter and can be driven to rotate by the shaft in a metering direction (D), where the metering wheel (13) is associated with blocking means (14) which are configured to block the metering wheel (13) against the transport of granular material in a direction opposite to the metering direction (D) from the inlet (8) to the outlet (11) and/or in the metering direction (D) from the outlet (11) to the inlet (8), and a plain wheel (15) is arranged at each end face (13a) of the metering wheel (13) and extends between the end face (13a) and the side wall (10) in an unfastened manner on the shaft, where a sealing element (16) is arranged on both sides between the respective end face (13a) of the metering wheel (13) and a side surface (15a) of the respective plain wheel (15) pointing toward this end face (13a).

An agricultural machine for dispensing material to be distributed, which agricultural machine comprises at least one metering element having a metering roller for metering the material to be distributed mounted in a metering housing and is rotatably driven. The metering roller has a plurality of metering wheel segments, each metering wheel segment of the metering roller is assigned a separate drive to drive the metering wheel segments independently of each other to ensure exact metering of the material to be distributed within finely subdivided partial widths of the agricultural machine. The drives of the metering wheel segments of the metering roller are arranged in the interior thereof, for example within a tubular hollow body, on which the metering wheel segments are mounted, such that the drives are ideally accommodated with protection from external influences and in a space-saving manner.

An agricultural implement and a metering apparatus for the agricultural implement to deliver a material to a material depositing apparatus. The metering apparatus includes metering roller, an integrated motor operatively connected to the metering roller, and a motor drive operatively connected to the integrated motor. A controller is operatively connected to the integrated motor and to the motor drive wherein the controller transmits a drive signal to drive the integrated motor and receives a status signal from the integrated motor. The drive signals drives the motor, which includes the roller coupled to a motor spindle, at a variable rate of speed to reduce pulsing. In one embodiment, the agricultural implement is an air cart.

A metering device for dispensing agricultural product from a bin. The metering device comprises an upper housing and a lower housing removably engaged with the upper housings. The metering device further includes at least one metering wheel positioned within an interior space presented by the upper housing or the lower housing.

A planting system including a seed flow controller coupled to a hopper and a spreader, is described. The seed flow controller, hopper, and spreader are transported by an unmanned aerial vehicle to spread the seeds over a geography. The seed flow controller includes several rollers having apposed outer surfaces. The rollers also include fins that extend about respective roller axes such that the fins cross at discrete contact points as the rollers rotate. The interfacing rollers break up clumps of seed material stored in the hopper and controllably convey the seed material from the hopper to the spreader. The spreader has a spinning spreader plate that flings the seed material laterally outward to spread the seed material over the ground. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

An agricultural implement and a metering apparatus for the agricultural implement to deliver a material to a material depositing apparatus. The metering apparatus includes metering roller, an integrated motor operatively connected to the metering roller, and a motor drive operatively connected to the integrated motor. A controller is operatively connected to the integrated motor and to the motor drive wherein the controller transmits a drive signal to drive the integrated motor and receives a status signal from the integrated motor. The drive signals drives the motor, which includes the roller coupled to a motor spindle, at a variable rate of speed to reduce pulsing. In one embodiment, the agricultural implement is an air cart.

A seed delivery system for use in a seeding or planting machine that removes the seed from a seed meter by capturing the seed therefrom. The delivery system then moves the seed down to a lower discharge point and accelerates the seed horizontally rearward to a speed approximately equal to the forward travel speed of the seeding machine such that the seed, when discharged has a low or zero horizontal velocity relative to the ground. Rolling of the seed in the trench is thus reduced. Furthermore, as the seed only has a short drop from the outlet to the bottom of the seed trench, the seed has little vertical speed to induce bounce. The delivery system uses a brush belt to capture, move and accelerate the seed. By capturing the seed and moving it from the meter to the discharge, the seed is held in place relative to other seeds and the planter row unit. As a result, the seeds are isolated from row unit dynamics thereby maintaining seed spacing.