Products

Press Wheel Kits

Press Wheels Kits improve potato planters’ placement accuracy by capturing the seed immediately after being released by the planter. The seed is absorbed by the soft surface of the press wheel and held stationary against the ground long enough to remove its forward movement. This process also tucks soil around the sides of each seed piece (photo of seed & video of tucked seed, closing disc removed) which prevents seed from moving when the soil is pushed back to close furrow by coulters, etc.

Press Wheel kits became commercially available in 2019 and are currently offered for Grimmme, Spudnik, and Harriston brands of potato planters.

Allan Equipment Manufacturers Ltd. (AEML) manufactures and distributes the Press Wheel Kits.

Seed Sensing Technology

Seed Sensing Technology utilizes existing Press Wheel systems that improve plant spacing uniformity, but features enhanced press wheels that sense the contact with each seed piece while it’s being locked in place by the press wheels during planting. This contact with the press wheels is at the precise time the seed becomes stationary in the furrow. This enables our system to give real-time feedback on the actual seed placement on a per-row basis, allowing the farmer to maximize planter performance and planting speed, no matter the conditions.

The main feature of the SST are as follows:

• Deliver real-time feedback on seeding information and the planter’s actual performance, allowing assessment and immediate corrective action by the operator.
• Automatically upload all seeding information to a secure data storage platform (BSSi’s app) where farmers can access their own data at any time, from anywhere.
• Allow farm managers to monitor planters’ performance remotely in real-time via BSSI’s
  mobile app
• Accumulate all seeding data for each field or seed lot: total planted, total seed weight,
  doubles, misses, less than ideal, and ideally planted seed.
• Builds detailed farm historical seeding data from which to evaluate. Can’t improve what you are measuring.
• Allow for more efficient land use, minimizing plant footprints and enabling better use of crop inputs.
• Monitor the seeding rate (cwt/ac) and average seed placing in real time.
• Eliminate digging behind the planter to evaluate performance.
• Monitor individual press wheels for slip and air pressure.
• Includes rechargeable batteries that are installed inside each Press Wheel. The batteries are easily accessible and have enough capacity to run for one full planting season on a single charge.

BSSI was built on the farm value of hard work and the knowledge that time is a precious commodity – especially in the spring during planting season. The user interface was designed by a farmer for farmers and requires as little input from the operator as possible while still allowing detail-oriented operators to capture important planting information including farm and field names, seed variety, seedlot and seed weight for each field.

The Seed Sensing Technology is commercially available for the 2023 planting season. Planters with existing Press Wheel Systems can be easily upgraded by replacing the existing wheels and installing a wireless network access point on the planter and a monitor in the tractor cab. The Seed Sensing Systems are manufactured, assembled and tested by the BSSI team before being installed into Press Wheels at the Allan Equipment Manufacturers Ltd (AEML) manufacturing facility.

AEML distributes the Seed Sensing System upgrade kits. Please contact BSSi or AEML for more information & to order.

Limited supply for the 2023!