John Deere’s new MaxEmerge 5e variable-rate electric drive row units have been designed to improve planting accuracy and reduce the need for maintenance, and are now available in Australia.
Aimed mostly at helping corn and soybean growers improve planting accuracy, reliability and uptime during sowing, the row units have an electric drive meter that allows each unit to work independently.
John Deere seeding product specialist Brian Boelens says they can be used on a wide variety of John Deere planters, including popular mini-hopper and DB planters, and that the new row units improve seeding population accuracy across the full width of the planter — especially when operating on curves.
“With planters equipped with the electric meter drive for each row unit and related technology, customers can achieve up to a 20 per cent improvement in population accuracy and eliminate a potential one to two percent yield loss due to seeding inaccuracies,” Boelens says.
While the MaxEmerge 5e row units still utilise a seed tube, an electric drive meter on each row unit replaces traditional shafts and drivelines.
The elimination of certain components featured in earlier designs also provides easier access to each row unit and decreases the time and labour needed for planter maintenance.
It is compatible with SeedStar 3HP and SeedStar Mobile seed monitoring systems that have a wireless data server.
Standard features of the MaxEmerge 5e row units include variable rate, individual row electric meter drives, active pneumatic downforce, SeedStar 3HP monitoring system, curve compensation, vacuum automation, meter runoff and built-in row command.
To operate the electric drive meters, tractors need to have a PTO for electric power generation.
These new row units can be used on 1725 16-row, 1775NT, 1795, DB44, DB60, DB66, DB80, DB88, and DB90 planters, including mini-hopper, 1.6-bushel and 3-bushel hopper models.
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