John Deere redesigns air drill for access, accuracy, and control

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John Deere has redesigned and renamed its air drill for small grains. The N500C Air Drill features some significant changes that aim to give producers easier access, greater accuracy, and control.

RealAgriculture caught up with Hanna Moore, John Deere sales and marketing representative, at the National Farm Machinery Show at Louisville, Kentucky, where she outlined the improvements to the new drills.

Moore says that of many the changes incorporated into the drills were initially developed for use in Deere’s other seeding platforms. “We took a lot of the technologies from the planters and larger air seeders and brought them down to this one machine.”

Moore explains how the new naming system came about. “The N is going to stand for no-till; five is going to be the series; after that is the dimensions; … and the C stands for CCS seed metering.”

The new series will have larger capacity seed tanks and will be equipped with tank scales. The scales will enable the operator to do seed calibration throughout the day from the cab of the tractor.

Access to the metering system has been greatly improved with the addition of electric drive meters already in use in the planting units. Moore says this will enable prescription seeding and four-section variable-rate seeding.

The air drill’s increased accuracy extends right down to the soil. Moore says, “We also have ProSeries Openers. We changed these from the 90 series openers, and put these on here. That’s going to give you better seed placement, (and) more accurate emergence.”

Watch Hanna Moore, John Deere sales and marketing representative, explain the new features of the N500C Air Drill, below.

Click here for more National Farm Machinery Show coverage

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