June 25, 2025

Precision Planting: Getting corn and soybean seeds off the best start possible

By Jeannine Otto

The planter’s the thing as farmers look toward the 2020 planting season. Jason Webster, commercial agronomist at Precision Planting, talked to the staff and customers of Wolf Farms Precision about everything planting, from seed biology and how it impacts germination to planting depth and air pockets. Before the meeting, Webster (kneeling) discussed the pros and cons of different closing wheels with Jeremy Wolf (standing, in front of display), Aaron Wolf and Michael Koster. (AgriNews photo)

DIXON, Ill. — Most everyone is familiar with the adage that soybeans don’t like having wet feet. But what about corn seeds?

Stands to reason they likely don’t like it either — and Jason Webster of Precision Planting has some numbers to prove it.

“I had a corn hybrid that had a 40% saturated cold germination score and I planted it to see what would happen — and I lost half my stand with it,” said Webster, manager and director of the Precision Technology Institute, the Precision Planting research and demonstration farm near Pontiac.

Webster shared tips and information with an audience at Wolf Farms Precision during a pre-planting season meeting for customers and farmers in the area.

Webster talked about the newest Precision Planting technologies — FurrowForce, SmartFirmer and Conceal, as well as some of the popular classics, DownForce and CleanSweep.

In addition to the Precision technology, Webster talked about the field and planting conditions that call for the products to solve any number of planting errors — often ones that farmers don’t realize until it’s too late, the saturated cold germination score of seeds being an example.

“Farmers aren’t being told this from seed companies. They get warm and cold but they don’t really see the stress with the saturated cold,” Webster said.

Webster said that the information doesn’t have to be a deal-breaker for farmers or for seed companies.

“It’s not that it’s a bad hybrid, that’s what some seed companies are afraid of. It’s just that you don’t want to put it in those cold, wet conditions. So, maybe plant it a little later, that’s all we’ve got to do,” Webster said.

The PTI farm where Webster and a team from Precision conduct planting trials and test out Precision Planting technology is going into its third growing season in 2020.

Webster shared some of the lessons learned from the challenging 2019 growing season with the audience at Wolf Farms. The top error? Planting by calendar instead of condition.

“On our research farm, we lost between 57 and 67 bushels to the acre by planting too early in conditions that were tough. We waited until conditions were optimum. Granted, it was June 5, but we still picked up that 57 to 67 bushels to the acre so it just shows you that I am not afraid of planting corn later. We can’t mud it in. We have to wait until conditions are right and do it right the first time. We get one shot to do it right,” Webster said.

For Chuck Myers, product consultant for Wolf Farms Precision, finding the right technology for customers means some frank talk with customers.

“What is your biggest concern? What is your biggest failure? We talk about that. Are you dropping seeds like you should be? If you are not, then that’s where we need to start. Are you controlling your downforce? If you are not, then we need to go there,” Myers said.

Myers said that one of the lessons learned from 2019 was the need for speed.

“Growers are coming back and they are saying we need to make a change, we need to get faster, we need to get more efficient, we need to do many things to make the planting season go in our favor,” Myers said.

Myers said the issues Webster discussed — how the seed is not just placed in the ground, but how it’s left there — is the next step for Precision technologies.

“The seed is pretty good as far as how we are laying it out. It’s the environment that we are leaving it in, and that is what we are working on now,” Myers said.

Myers said the various Precision Planting technologies can help farmers navigate whatever planting season and conditions they may face, from ideal to less so.

“When we get the planter set up with equipment so it can run in many different scenarios, then we win all the time. We’ll never get ahead of Mother Nature, but at least we can minimize her slap,” Myers said.

Starting with information as specific as which way the embryo on the corn kernel is facing when it lands in the furrow and how that affects leaf orientation and sunlight capture later on, Webster walked the audience through the important early steps of getting corn and soybean seeds off the best start possible.

One of those steps involves Conceal, a fertilizer placement device on the planter that puts a single or dual band of fertilizer alongside the seed for quick and easy availability when plants need it the most and where crown roots can access it. Webster cited Conceal as one of the practices he plants to continue from 2019.

“We talked about feeding a corn plant. That high concentrated band of nitrogen on both sides of the corn row is amazing,” he said.

Webster also stirred things up by promoting the same treatment for soybean planting, banded fertilizer at planting beneath the soil surface, where it is protected from volatilization and can move down through the soil profile to give beans a boost.

“I shouldn’t just say nitrogen on corn. I think the highly concentrated band of nutrients is a good idea for soybeans, as well,” he said.

Webster also talked about the all important ROI, return on investment.

“When do I buy a technology? If it will pay for itself in the first year. If it will take 10 years, it’s a luxury,” he said.

Webster cited the returns from the Conceal technology as an example of how Precision products can pay.

“We are looking at returns, after the cost of product, in soybeans, of over $80 an acre. With corn it’s over $60 an acre. Our costs are exactly the same as what we’ve been doing in the past, the same nitrogen rate, and we’re bringing in these returns of $60 an acre. That’s powerful,” Webster said.

One farmer who was happy to confirm that was Steve Johnson, who raises corn and soybeans near Orion. Johnson was at the meeting to hear about the new FurrowForce closing wheel system.

Johnson’s use of Precision Planting technology started with the 20/20 monitor.

“I tried that and kind of got addicted to it. Every time they come out with something, I want to see what it is,” Johnson said.

While cost can be a hurdle, Johnson said the tools provide a return on investment.

“It’s a little hard to start with because there is a cost factor, but then, after you find out that it pays back in big numbers pretty quickly, then it’s a lot easier. It really works and it’s made me a lot of money,” he said.