System and process for dispensing multiple and low rate agricultural products
First Claim
1. A process for dispensing agricultural products at a low application rate, comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a plurality of product containers containing low application rate, dry granular agricultural products wherein said product containers are rigid and are utilized in shipping, storage, and application of agricultural products, thus maintaining agricultural product integrity; and
, wherein said agricultural products are selected from the set of agricultural products consisting of;
insecticides, biological products, fertility products, fungicides, micro-nutrients, growth stimulants, and, RNA silencing or interference gene technology products;
b) providing a plurality of low application rate meter devices operatively connected to said plurality of product containers configured to dispense the agricultural products from the plurality of product containers, said plurality of low application rate meter devices being mounted on planters, said low application rate being defined as a rate below 3 ounces per 1000 feet of row;
c) providing precision placement equipment including placement tube assemblies operatively connected to said plurality of low rate meter devices to place the agricultural products in desired locations for efficient activity of the agricultural products, wherein each placement tube assembly is mounted between depth wheels of a depth control wheel assembly of the planter for placement of product in-furrow between the depth wheels; and
,d) operating said plurality of low application rate meter devices and said precision placement equipment to dispense the agricultural products at an optimized efficiency,wherein each of said placement tube assemblies includes an elongated placement tube arranged so that it descends from a portion of the frame behind the depth wheels to between the depth wheels.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for dispensing agricultural products includes: a master controller, sets of agricultural product containers, meter devices, and secondary controllers. The meter devices are operatively connected to the product containers and configured to dispense products from the containers to rows in a field wherein each of the sets of containers is associated with a respective row in the field. The secondary controllers actuate the meter devices. Each secondary controller receives command data from the master controller and controls the meter devices for dispensing in response to the command data. Agricultural product from each product container is dispensed in accordance with operator defined instructions to the master controller. The instructions are capable of being provided to the master controller during the planting allowing the dispensing of individual containers to be controlled. In one embodiment the invention is a process for dispensing agricultural products at low application rates utilizing precision placement equipment.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A process for dispensing agricultural products at a low application rate, comprising the steps of:
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a) providing a plurality of product containers containing low application rate, dry granular agricultural products wherein said product containers are rigid and are utilized in shipping, storage, and application of agricultural products, thus maintaining agricultural product integrity; and
, wherein said agricultural products are selected from the set of agricultural products consisting of;
insecticides, biological products, fertility products, fungicides, micro-nutrients, growth stimulants, and, RNA silencing or interference gene technology products;b) providing a plurality of low application rate meter devices operatively connected to said plurality of product containers configured to dispense the agricultural products from the plurality of product containers, said plurality of low application rate meter devices being mounted on planters, said low application rate being defined as a rate below 3 ounces per 1000 feet of row; c) providing precision placement equipment including placement tube assemblies operatively connected to said plurality of low rate meter devices to place the agricultural products in desired locations for efficient activity of the agricultural products, wherein each placement tube assembly is mounted between depth wheels of a depth control wheel assembly of the planter for placement of product in-furrow between the depth wheels; and
,d) operating said plurality of low application rate meter devices and said precision placement equipment to dispense the agricultural products at an optimized efficiency, wherein each of said placement tube assemblies includes an elongated placement tube arranged so that it descends from a portion of the frame behind the depth wheels to between the depth wheels. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A system for dispensing agricultural products at a low application rate, comprising:
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a) a plurality of product containers containing low application rate, dry, granular agricultural products, wherein said product containers are rigid and are utilized in shipping, storage, and application of agricultural products, thus maintaining agricultural product integrity; and
, wherein said agricultural products are selected from the set of agricultural products consisting of;
insecticides, biological products, fertility products, fungicides, micro-nutrients, growth stimulants, and, RNA silencing or interference gene technology products;b) a plurality of low application rate meter devices operatively connected to said product containers configured to dispense the agricultural products from the plurality of product containers, said meter devices being mounted on planters, said low application rate being defined as a rate below 3 ounces per 1000 feet of row; c) precision placement equipment including placement tube assemblies operatively connected to said plurality of low rate meter devices to place the agricultural products in the desired locations for efficient activity of the agricultural products, wherein each placement tube assembly is mounted between depth wheels of a depth control wheel assembly of the planter for placement of product in-furrow between the depth wheels; and
,wherein said low rate meter devices and said precision placement equipment are operated to dispense the agricultural products at an optimized efficiency, wherein each of said placement tube assemblies includes an elongated placement tube arranged so that it descends from a portion of the frame behind the depth wheels to between the depth wheels. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification