Enhancing the resilience of agricultural production to climate change, while simultaneously increasing resource-use efficiency, demands sowing technologies that are versatile and compatible with precision agriculture. Research and development of seed metering mechanisms play a critical role in achieving uniform seed placement, appropriate plant spacing, and improved crop performance. An effective metering system limits mechanical damage to seeds, minimizes losses, and enhances overall sowing efficiency. Although mechanical seed metering devices are fundamental components of precision planters, systematic investigations into their performance remain insufficient. This research gap restricts progress in improving seed distribution accuracy and adversely affects crop establishment and productivity across varying operating conditions. To address this issue, experiments were carried out using a specially designed laboratory test stand. Performance evaluation focused on parameters such as seed discharge frequency and seed interval, defined as the elapsed time between successive seeds leaving the hopper. Seed motion at the outlet was captured using a high-speed camera, enabling precise analysis of seed spacing. Each experiment was conducted in triplicate to ensure the reliability and repeatability of the results. Findings demonstrated that seed falling velocity and the temporal spacing between successive seeds were strongly affected by the disk rotational speed, and the reduction in standard error at higher speeds indicated improved seed flow stability and distribution uniformity. The results also confirmed that the developed seeder test bench is a simple, practical, and reliable tool for accurately evaluating seed metering performance as an alternative to conventional methods.
Jotautiene et al. (Wed,) studied this question.