ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF ACCURACY IN PLANT SPACING FOR PLANTERS USING SINGLE SEED METERING

For a planter using a single seed metering mechanism, the ability to p lace seeds a given distance apart in a row is an important factor in e valuating a planter's performance. Data collected to measure a planter 's accuracy often consist of a series of distances between plants. The distance between plants within a row is influenced by a number of fac tors including multiple seeds dropped at the same time, failure of a s eed to be dropped, failure of a seed to emerge, and variability around the drop point. The objective of this article is to compare alternati ve measures of accuracy in seed placement for planters using single se ed metering mechanisms. The measures compared are the mean, standard d eviation, quality of feed index, multiples index, miss index, and prec ision. Of the measures considered, both the mean and standard deviatio n were judged to be inappropriate measures of accuracy.