Accuracy of variable rate planters

Abstract

Variable-rate planters are present in experiments that had focused in crop production attributes; maintain the quality of dosage still unacquainted. However, available data could be used to discuss machine accuracy, which is the percentage error between the planned and obtained dosages. Thus, was proceeded an assessment of accuracy from the meta-analysis of data from offcial publications, describing the operation in different cultures. Among the available experiments, only in one case the accuracy remained below the maximum recommended value of 3%; with stable operation without distorting tendencies of dosage over the tested densities, with the distribution of the measurements with 99% explained variation and slope of 0.95. In other benchmarks, operational quality has been degraded by under dosing when increasing doses, with linear slopes which were reduced to 0.58 and accuracies up to 34.75%. Nevertheless, the distribution maintains coeffcients between 97 to 99%, which indicates that there may have been happened systematic and proportional effects of the equipment algorithm or calibration. Regardless of the crop, planters had increased accuracy along increasing dosages, showing the regions with the best performance on lower populations.