Mastering Hydraulic Down Force: Planting Tips for Optimal Seed Placement

00:00 We talk about our down force with our hydraulic down force and we really wonder how much should we apply? 00:07 And traditionally, a spring system or airbag system, you're, you're putting, you know, 250, 300 pounds down pressure, 400 pounds down pressure. 00:15 'cause that's what you're pushing down on the road. And that's what we always taught in accustomed to. But when we go to hydraulic down force, 00:22 it's measured differently. It's got sensors that measure it, that does the measurement. This is a sensor here that's on a John Deere. 00:29 You have a load pin that goes in right here for precision planting. And it's measuring the pressure 00:34 that's on these gauge wheels right here. Your little mustache right there is kind of like a walking beam. 00:40 It measures how much pressure you want against that gauge wheel when that gauge wheel comes up. So you got the weight of the row unit plus 00:47 how much more pressure do I want. You're not necessarily putting 400 pounds or 200 pounds or a hundred pounds. 00:54 What you're doing is you're setting your gen four or your gen or your gen three, your gen two or your John Deere system, you're setting that down pressure 01:04 and you want ground contact. Everybody gets caught up on the margin, the down pressure margin 01:10 and that gauge wheel margin, you shouldn't be caught up on it too much. The biggest thing the margin's gonna tell you is if this 01:15 sensor's not reading, if it's all flying, if it's got a problem and these styles have a lot of problems with 'em, they're switching these to dts 01:23 and that will help correct that problem. The key thing is, you got to remember is the more down pressure you get against this 01:31 gauge wheel, the more rigid you make your planter. So if you got contours in your field, you need to realize that I see my down, my ground contact has dropped down 01:42 to 80% while I automatically want to go up on my down pressure, putting pressure against these gauge wheels 01:47 to get better ground contact. But what actually may be happening is, is you're getting it so stiff, you're making the planter so rigid 01:55 by putting too much down pressure that this row right beside the row number nine here, row number 10, is actually up on a ridge 02:04 and it's at a hundred percent ground contact, but it's got it so rigid it won't let it down enough. So the travel can get this one to the correct thing. 02:12 It creates a rigid planter. So what you'll realize is on the hydraulic downforce, instead of choosing a number like three 50 to 400 02:20 or whatnot, you're going to have limits as to how much you can put. Usually it's 400 02:25 to 500 is a limit depending on your planter type. But in your monitor you're going to choose 50 pounds. 70 pounds, you can customize it anywhere from 50 02:34 to about 150 pounds. What you're going to find is if you got 70 to 80 pounds of pressure against this gauge wheel arm right here, 02:44 this mustache, this reading that much pressure against it, that's all you need. That's going to be good seat soil contact. 02:51 And what you're gonna realize is your ground contact, even though you is not getting good contact at 150 pounds against this 02:59 Gauge wheel, you drop it down to 70, you make that planter more flexible, you let it follow the ground contour better. 03:05 And when you do that, that is going to allow a 95 to a hundred percent ground contact on your map. A lot of people says, I want 03:12 a hundred percent ground contact. If you try to run a hundred percent ground contact the entire time on your planter, 03:18 what you're doing is you're causing tremendously excessive wear because you really need it be to to stay in 03:25 that 95% to 100%. If it stays about 98%, that's perfect. Don't try to get it no better on ground contact, 03:34 especially no tilling and contours. If you're on a flat plained out field and you don't hardly need any, hardly down pressure at all, 03:42 less say 50 pounds extra, added it on this versus the weight, and you set your monitor at 50 pounds 03:48 and you're at a hundred percent, that's cool. That works good. Don't worry about it. But when you get into no-till environment 03:54 and uneven conditions, you gotta let that planter be flexible. You don't want to jack it up rigid. 04:00 And these sensors are very accurate. They do a good job, but you really, that's what you're after. 04:05 You know, you look right here on our map. We're keeping everything, you know, above 90%. And I'm happy with that. That's really good. 04:13 We went out and walked these fields after the corn's come up, it looks really good. Your ride quality is pretty important. 04:19 When you go from five mile an hour to eight mile an hour, you're probably going to need to go up 10 pounds. 04:24 You're probably going to need to go from a, if you're on 70 pounds and you're getting great contact, 95 plus percent 04:32 and then you're going to go to eight mile an hour, you're probably gonna need to go up 10 pounds. The reason being, the faster you're running 04:37 through the field takes more pressure to hold it in. 'cause it's this naturally wanting to ride itself out due to the friction. 04:43 Do you have any questions on this or concerns or not completely clear on the hydraulic down force, how to set your planter and the margins? 04:52 Send us a question, let us know. We can help you with it. But rest assured, the hydraulic down force, 04:58 the way you measure it and the way it works, is a totally different concept than your airbags and your traditional springs 05:04 that we grew up using. Y'all stay safe. I hope this helps you a little.