Oklahoma State University

William R Raun

Marvin Lyle Stone

John Bruce Solie

Gordon V Johnson

Duane Needham

Randal K Taylor

Adrian A Koller

Kyle Freeman

A hand-planter for singulation planting of cereal, grain, seed and other crops includes a tapered soil engagement component for striking and penetrating a soil surface. With each planter strike to the soil surface, the planter is actuated to meter a granular material product by reciprocating a drum to rotate, thereby exposing a cavity to a material hopper. As the actuation force is released, the reciprocating drum rotates in an opposite direction to its original location and drops the material that has been metered.

Singulating hand planter and fertilizer applicator

A method for in-season macro and micronutrient application based on predicted yield potential, coefficient of variation, and a nutrient response index. The inventive method includes the steps of: determining a nutrient response index for a field; determining the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of an area to fertilize; determining the coefficient of variation of NDVI over a plot; determining a predicted crop yield for the area without additional nutrient; determining an attainable crop yield for the area with additional nutrient; determining the nutrient requirement for the area as the difference between the nutrient removal at the attainable yield minus the nutrient removal at the predicted yield, adjusted by the efficiency of nutrient utilization in the particular crop as indicated by the coefficient of variation.

Use of within-field-element-size CV for improved nutrient fertilization in crop production

A method for in-season macro and micronutrient application based on predicted yield potential and a nutrient response index. The inventive method includes the steps of: determining a nutrient response index for a field; determining the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of an area to fertilize; determining a predicted crop yield for the area; determining an attainable crop yield for the area; determining the nutrient requirement for the area as the difference between the nutrient removal at the attainable yield minus the nutrient removal at the predicted yield, adjusted by the efficiency of nutrient uptake in the particular crop. In one preferred embodiment, processing requirements at the time of application of the nutrient are eased by generating a lookup table of nutrient requirement relative to measured NDVI prior to application of the nutrient.

Process for in-season fertilizer nutrient application based on predicted yield potential

A spectral reflectance sensor including: a light source for emitting a modulated beam of red light; a light source for emitting a modulated beam of near infrared light; a receiver for receiving reflected light produced by either the red source or the near infrared source; a receiver for receiving incident light from either the red source or the infrared source; a signal conditioner responsive to the modulation such that the signals produced by the receivers in response to reflected and incident light from the source can be discriminated from signals produced by ambient light; and a microprocessor having an input such that the microprocessor can determine the intensities of incident red light, reflected red light; incident near infrared light; and reflected near infrared light. From these intensities, and by knowing the growing days since emergence or planting, the sensor can calculate the mid-growing season nitrogen fertilizer requirements of a plant.

Optical spectral reflectance sensor and controller

A method for in-season fertilizer nitrogen application based on predicted yield potential and a nutrient response index. The inventive method includes the steps of: determining a nutrient response index for a field; determining the normalized difference vegetation index of an area to fertilize; determining a predicted crop yield for the area; determining an attainable crop yield for the area; determining nitrogen uptake for the vegetation within the area; and determining the amount of fertilizer nitrogen required by said vegetation. In one embodiment, the normalized difference vegetation index is determined by scanning an area to fertilize with a spectral reflectance sensor which provides reflectance values for red light and near infrared light. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is defined by: NDVI&equals;(NIR&minus;red)/(NIR&plus;red) where &ldquo;NIR&rdquo; is the reflectance value for near infrared light and &ldquo;red&rdquo; is the reflectance value for red light.

Growing community of inventors

Stillwater, OK, United States of America

William R Raun