Pre-season maintenance
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Pre-season maintenance

Before heading to the field, a pre-season check of your planter is a must to help achieve the desired plant population and uniformity. 

Neglecting planter maintenance can impact your entire growing season, leading to uneven emergence, gappy stands, non-uniform crops, delayed maturity, and ultimately reduced yields.  

Essential pre-season equipment checklist

Prior to planting your planter maintenance checklist should include these critical components: 

Planter setup and alignment

  • Level the planter horizontally and vertically, or have it run slightly downhill 
  • Ensure parallelograms are horizontal or slightly below toolbar height during planting 
  • Check bushings and parallel linkages to reduce bounce and lateral movement 

Check planter components and systems

  • Drive chains and cogs: Remove kinks, ensure lubrication and confirm they’re running true 
  • Disc openers: Ensure even wear and good contact, with mud scrapers properly aligned 
  • Seed tubes: Replace worn or faulty tubes 
  • Press wheels: Replace redundant ball bearings and rubber tyres, ensuring they line up on the planting disc slot 
  • Spray components: Clean spray lines, nozzles and filters to prevent blockages 
  • Application systems: Calibrate planter application rates for granular insecticide or liquid injection  

Calibration and monitoring

  • Calibrate seed rate and meters with correct seeding plates and baffle settings 
  • Ensure monitor sensors are securely fastened and cleaned 
  • Check that monitors are calibrated and working correctly 

 

Planter

Additional tips 

Beyond the basic checks, it’s also valuable to complete a full lubrication of the planter and check all electrical wiring harnesses for damage. Keep a kit of spare parts including seed tubes, press wheels, scrapers, monitor cables, chains and nozzles in the cabin for quick repairs. 

Proper equipment setup and maintenance can help you reduce production downtime and overcome less than ideal field conditions to achieve good crop establishment.  

 

Do it once, do it right

Download the comprehensive FastStart Cotton Establishment Guide at www.faststartcotton.com.au/downloads  for detailed pre-season preparation checklists, planting guidelines and expert recommendations to get your cotton off to a FastStart.