SEED TREATMENT FACILITIES, METHODS, AND APPARATUS

• US 20140083358A1
• Filed: 12/08/2011
• Published: 03/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bayer Cropscience LP (Bayer AG)
• Original Assignee: Bayer Cropscience LP (Bayer AG)
• Inventors: Geiss, Alan W., May, Bradley W., Ramanarayanan, Tharacad S., Andrieux, Marc Jean-Marie, Reineccius, Greg A., Van der Westhuizen, Jaco Ernest
• Granted Patent: US 9,918,425 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 118/696
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 1/06 Coating or dressing seed
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 21/00 Methods of fertilising , sowing or planting
• CPC Class Codes: A23B 9/14 Coating with a protective layer; Compositions or apparatus therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10237 the reader and the record carrier being capable of selectively switching between reader and record carrier appearance, e.g. in near field communication [NFC] devices where the NFC device may function as an RFID reader or as an RFID tag
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/02 Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining

Abstract

A seed treatment system having a central computerized data store, a user interface, and network connections from the data store to a plurality of retail facilities and a plurality of agricultural produce suppliers. Each retail facility having a seed treatment system configured to uniformly treat batches of seeds with any of a variety of precisely measured chemical formulations. The seed treatment apparatus having a treatment applicator coupled to a plurality of dispensing stations. Each dispensing stations having a pump in fluid communication with a container disposed on a scale. The pump and scale of each dispensing station coupled to a system controller. The system controller is coupled to the data store, configured to provide on-demand agricultural seed treatments to the applicator and chemical usage data from each station to the data store. The data store configured to provide centralized remote monitoring inventory control, supply chain monitoring, and container recycling compliance.

Claims

1-25. -25. (canceled)

26. A seed treatment facility for delivery of the treated seeds to retail customers for planting, the facility comprising:

a storage area, an operations area, and a customer access area,

a stock of manually handleable kegs with a plurality of seed treatment formulations stored at the facility in the storage area,

a plurality of keg stations in the operations area at the facility, each keg station having a keg receiving region for a selected one of the stock of the manually handleable kegs and a fluid coupling for connecting to a keg on said platform,

a continuous flow treatment seed treater having a seed treatment formulation inlet, a seed inlet, a treatment portion, a mixing portion, and a treated seed discharge portion in the operations area, and

each of the keg stations having a fluid line in fluid communication with the inlet, whereby seed treatment formulation may be dispensed from a keg at any one of the keg stations through said respective fluid line to the seed treatment formulation inlet, whereby there is no manual mixing of the seed treatment formulation in the keg and exposure of operators to said seed treatment formulation is minimized.

27. The seed treatment facility of claim 26 further comprising bulk seed storage and conveyance apparatus for mechanically conveying a stream of bulk seed storage to the continuous flow treatment seed treater, the conveyance apparatus extending to the seed treater.

28. The seed treatment facility of claim 26 further comprising a programmable process controller having a user interface and being operably connected to the seed treater and each keg station, the control processer controlling the simultaneous dispensing of seed treatment formulations of a plurality of the keg stations to the seed treater in accord with a recipe.

29. The seed treatment facility of claim 26 wherein each keg station has a variable flow pump controlled by the process controller and a scale defining in part the keg receiving region, the scale connected to the process controller wherein the weight loss of seed treatment formulation in a keg in place on the keg station platform may be monitored as the seed treatment formulation therein is being dispensed.

30. The seed treatment facility of claim 29 wherein the process controller is programmed to utilize the monitoring of the weight loss to validate respective pump performance.

31. The seed treatment facility of claim 26, wherein the keg stations each comprise a rack portion with a pump affixed thereto and positioned above the keg receiving region.

32. The seed treatment facility of claim 28 wherein the process controller is connected to a network for transmiting data relating to seed treatment operations and for receiving data including recipes for combining seed treatment formulations.

33. The seed treatment facility of claim 28 further comprising a scanner operably connected to the process controller for scanning kegs seating on any of the plurality of keg stations.

34-45. -45. (canceled)

46. An seed treatment system comprising:

a plurality of pump-stations having a receiving region for receiving a liquid chemical container, each pump-station having a scale and a pump;

a programmable system controller electrically coupled to the pump controller and the scale of each of the plurality of pump-stations, the programmable system controller configured to receive a weight reading from the scale of each of the plurality of pump-stations and control each pump deliver in response to a seed treatment recipe;

a seed-treater configured to apply a plurality of chemical treatments to a quantity of seed in a uniform manner, the seed treater in fluid communication with each pump station;

wherein the programmable system controller is operably connected to a computer network and configured to receive and send data relating to seed treatment formulations.

47. The seed treater of claim 46 wherein each pump station has a pump controller connected to the pump and to the programmable system controller.

48. The seed treatment system of claim 46, further comprising:

a bar code scanner operably coupled to the programmable system controller, wherein the bar code scanner is configured to read at least one bar code associated with the chemical container, and the programmable system controller is configured to receive and store the bar code number in an inventory database.

49. The seed treatment system of claim 46, further comprising:

a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader operably coupled to the programmable controller, wherein the RFID configured to read a RFID tag attached to the chemical container and a set of data stored in the RFID tag is presented to the programmable system controller for report generation and inventory control

50. The seed treatment system of claim 46, wherein an RFID reader is affixed to each of plurality of pump-stations and the system controller is configured such that the pump of the pump-station is only operated when the RFID reader can read an RFID tag associated with a keg positioned on the scale of the pump-station.

51. The seed treatment system of claim 46, wherein an air-removal valve is affixed to each of the plurality of pump-stations and is in fluid communication with the pump and the chemical container.

52. The seed treatment system of claim 46, wherein the programmable controller is further configured to report, via the computer network, select data collected during seed treatment.

53. The seed treatment system of claim 46, wherein the data collected during seed treatment by the programmable controller includes at least one of the following set:

a weight of chemical pumped from each container;

a duration of time the pump of each pump-station was in operation;

an average speed of the pump of each pump-station during operation; and

a quantity of chemical applied to a batch of seed.

55. The seed treatment system of claim 46, further comprising:

a mix-station having a scale, a mix tank disposed on the scale, a pump in fluid communication with the mix tank, a water supply line directed into the mix tank, and a pump controller, the pump controller being configured to operate the pump.

56. The method of claim 46, further comprising:

monitoring the consumption of each of the plurality of treatment chemicals at an individual seed treatment location.

57. The method of claim 46, further comprising:

measuring an environmental condition at a seed treatment site.

58. The method of claim 57, wherein the environmental condition is one of temperature and humidity.

54. (canceled)

59-87. -87. (canceled)