Topcon’s latest product is designed to establish sugar beet and maize more accurately and with reduced seed wastage. Called the Apollo CM-20, and available from LH Agro, the universal row crop planting controller can monitor planting accuracy in real-time and relay this information to the operator to deal with any anomalies.
Able to control the function of up to 24 electrically driven seeding units, the controller makes on-the-fly adjustments to avoid seed wastage as a result of overlaps, misses at headlands or in the corners of awkwardly shaped fields.
In addition to auto-section, variable rate control and variable rate application of up to three additional granular products, a main advantage is its ability to monitor singulation and spacing accuracy and to ensure that each seed is dropped in the correct position.
The Apollo CM-20 can be paired with an ISObus display to monitor and control the planting of row crops such as sugar beet and maize.
This includes bends in the field where turn compensation reduces the seeding rate towards the inside of the curve and increases it at the outer radius where the seeding coulters travel further and faster. “This ensures all seeds are planted at equal distances irrespective of irregularities in field shape,” says Richard Reed, managing director of Topcon distributor LH Agro.
Suitable for retrofitting to most existing precision drills and for use with any ISObus compatible implement control console, the Apollo CM-20 is also compatible with the Topcon Agriculture Platform. This allows seeding data and prescription mapping information to be relayed from the implement to the farm office and vice versa.
