ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF ACCURACY IN PLANT SPACING FOR PLANTERS USING SINGLE SEED METERING

For a planter using a single seed metering mechanism, the ability to place seeds a given distance apart in a row is an important factor in evaluating a planter's performance. Data collected to measure a planter's accuracy often consist of a series of distances between plants. The distance between plants within a row is influenced by a number of factors including multiple seeds dropped at the same time, failure of a seed to be dropped, failure of a seed to emerge, and variability around the drop point. The objective of this article is to compare alternative measures of accuracy in seed placement for planters using single seed metering mechanisms. The measures compared are the mean, standard deviation, quality of feed index, multiples index, miss index, and precision. Of the measures considered, both the mean and standard deviation were judged to be inappropriate measures of accuracy.