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FARGO, N.D. -- The trouble with sugar
beet seeds, you see, is that they come in different sizes.
The seeds can come bare, coated or
pelleted. They are brightly dyed with red and blue in
different colors denoting size and brand identifications. Some
are "pelleted" with lyme and fungicides to give the
better start.
"You have so many sizes," says
Hans Hohle, a longtime beet equipment developer. "These
sizes are hard to singulate and plant. Uniformity in size is
necessary for selection and placement. That is the
bigchallenge to the manufacturers of planters."
Hohle of Lake Park, Minn., thinks he
answer for the problem -- the MagicSem vacuum metering unit.
It's manufactured by MaterMacc of Italy. Hohle showed it
recently at the International Sugarbeet Institute trade show
in Fargo, N.D.
Until now, if beet growers wanted to
change seed size, they'd have and change the round
"plates" on their planting units. Round
"plates" on planters are provided with a circle of
holes, sized just smaller than the seed. The seeds are picked
up with a vacuum and are released to the planting tubes when
the vacuum is cut off.
A typical 24-row planter has 24 plates to
change. Plate cost is an issue, but the bigger issue is that
farmers sometimes find the exact plate size or the correct
seed size to fit his plate.Hohle sells the conversion unit
that is suitable to replace conventional metering units on
planters made by such companies as John Deere, White or Case,
Hohle says.
"I found this thing in the vegetable
industry and saw its application in the beet industry,"
says Hohle. "They have a good reputation in Europe and
are now starting to penetrate the U.S. market."
MaterMacc makes its holes large enough to
handle even the largest beet seeds. Positioned behind the
generous holes is a circular steel "blade" that
crosses the vacuum holes, allowing the air to flow. Some of
the bare beet seeds have "wing tips," which can
lodge in the hole of a normal seed plate, Hohle says.
"This planter does not allow them to
poke through," he says. "The seed sits on the
surface of the plate has the air flowing around it."
The machine was patented internationally
about seven years ago. It has been in the United States for
two years -- primarily in the vegetable market on the East and
West coasts.
"The vegetable industry has a
multitude of seed sizes in very small plots -- one or two
acres -- not the thousands of acres we have, in beets,"
Hohle says. "These people have to change plates a lot as
they gofrom pumpkins, to melons to whatever. The advantage of
one seed plate for a multitude of crop seed sizes is a great
advantage."
MaterMacc conversion kits aren't cheap --
$750 per planting "unit," Hohle says. A farmer
outfitting a 24-row planter would lay out $18,000.
Supplies are limited for 2001, but the
sufficient amounts will be made available in 2002, Hohle says.
For a new, conventional planter, Hohle
says, farmers might pay about $3,000 per row for a seeding
unit, including the hopper, seeder unit and metering system.
"Our unit, being $750, is only a conversion
unit,"Hohle says. "This way, he can upgrade an old
planter, with only the $750 investment."
"Most farmers with larger acreage
will stick with a standard vacuum planter for the crops that
are not spacing-sensitive," Hohle says, referring to
things like corn and soybeans. "However, smaller farmers
--including smaller sugar beet farmers -- may be better off
with this unit, to plant a variety of crops."
Seed spacing is more important for beets
than for any other crops, Hohle says. Beets planted too
thickly must be thinned. Most beet growers today are striving
to plant seed to the final desired stand. If beets grow too
thickly, root sizes vary more. That causes problems in
defoliating, harvesting, storage and processing.
"The more uniform the size, the
better all of these functions are," Hohle says.
"It's not like corn, where smaller-than-
average ear goes into a combine with
lesser consequences."
Hohle has been on the region's sugar beet
industry scene for 35 years. A native of Germany, he came to
North America in the 1960s with a plant science degree.
"There were six kids on our 15-acre farm," Hohle
says. "There was no room to feed six, I tell you
that."
In 1970, he was one of three original
personnel to start Betaseed in Moorhead, Minn., where he
became research station manager. In 1976, Hohle went to
Alloway Manufacturing Co. as a product manager. He helped
develop beet defoliation and cultivation equipment. For a time
he moved to California, where helped adapt Alloway's machines
to furrow-irrigated crops, such as cotton, tomato and others.
In 1989, he was back in Fargo, working
for Parma Co., of Parma, Idaho, selling beet defoliation and
harvest equipment throughout the Midwest. In 1990, he worked
for Art's Way of Armstrong, Iowa, developing beet tillage and
harvesting equipment.
In 1994, Hohle was one of three founding
partners in Beetec L.L.C. The company developed the first
folding beet defoliator and a beet harvester. In 1996, Beetec
was sold to Woods-Alloway and Hohle returned to the company as
a product manager until the end of 2000. Recently, Hohle
became a MaterMacc distributer for all U.S. beet growing
areas. He is in the process of starting a new company to
develop innovative for sugar beets.
Hohle says major full-line farm equipment
manufacturers pay little attention to it. Financial returns
for beet growers have not been high enough to spur much new
product development.
"These innovative products will have
to be developed outside the manufacturing arena," Hohle
says. "I'm trying to bring these new products to the
market without being a manufacturer." |