Seed treatment facilities, methods and apparatus

• US 9,877,424 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2011
• Issued: 01/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bayer Cropscience LP (Bayer AG)
• Original Assignee: Bayer Cropscience LP (Bayer AG)
• Inventors: Reineccius, Greg A., Van Der Westhuizen, Jaco Ernest, Geiss, Alan W., May, Bradley W., Ramanarayanan, Tharacad S., Andrieux, Marc Jean-Marie
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomas, Binu
• Application Number:
  US13/314,146
• Publication Number:
  US 20120189762A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,246 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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. A seed treatment system for use at a facility for delivery of treated seeds to retail customers for planting, the facility having a stock of manually handleable kegs received from a seed treatment formulation supplier, the manually handleable kegs each filled with fluid being one of a plurality of different seed treatment formulations, the seed treatment system comprising:

a plurality of keg stations for placement at the facility, each keg station having a scale and a seating surface defining a receiving region for receiving a selected one of the stock of the filled manually handleable kegs, each keg station further having a fluid coupling for connecting to said selected one, and a pump connected to the fluid coupling for pumping the seed treatment formulation in said selected one out of said selected one, wherein when the selected one is depleted, said selected one may be replaced with a selected another of the stock of manually handleable kegs;

a programmable system controller coupled to each pump at each of the plurality of keg stations for controlling each said pump;

a continuous flow treatment seed treater having a seed inlet, a treatment portion, and a treated seed discharge portion; and

a mixing manifold mounted to the seed treater and extending to the treatment portion of the seed treater, and wherein

each of the keg stations having a fluid line for connecting directly to the mixing manifold mounted to the seed treater, wherein the seed treatment formulations from more than one of the plurality of keg stations may be simultaneously dispensed through said respective fluid lines to the mixing manifold wherein the seed treatment formulations are mixed in the mixing manifold and then applied into a continuous flow of seed in the treatment portion of the seed treater;

wherein each said seating surface is perpendicular to the direction of gravity, and wherein each said fluid coupling is, with respect to the direction of gravity, attached to a top side of said selected one of the stock of the filled manually handleable kegs;

wherein each keg has a stirrer mechanism; and

wherein the programmable system controller is configured to direct a station controller to prevent operation of the stirrer mechanism during application of a chemical formulation from one of the manually handleable kegs.

2. The seed treatment system of claim 1 where each of the receiving regions of each keg station is sized for accommodating the manually handleable keg sized for 7 to 55 gallons.

3. The seed treatment system of claim 1, the programmable system controller is further configured for controlling each pump of each keg station and monitoring the loss of weight measured by the scale at each respective keg station due to the respective pumping.

4. The seed treatment system of claim 1, wherein each keg station has a pump controller and each pump is a variable flow pump.

5. The seed treatment system of claim 1, further comprising a mix tank station with a pump connected to the programmable system controller.

6. The seed treatment system of claim 1 wherein the seed treatment system is at the facility for delivery of treated seeds to retail customers and is in combination with the stock of manually handleable kegs.

7. The seed treatment system of claim 6 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.

8. A seed treatment system comprising:

a plurality of keg stations each having a receiving region with a seating surface for receiving a keg filled with a fluid of one of a plurality of seed treatment formulations, each keg station having a scale and a pump;

a programmable system controller electrically coupled to the pump and the scale of each of the plurality of keg stations, the programmable system controller configured to receive a weight reading from the scale of each of the plurality of keg stations and simultaneously operate and control each pump of more than one keg stations in response to a seed treatment recipe;

a seed-treater configured to apply a plurality of chemical treatments from the more than one keg stations to a quantity of seed in a uniform manner, the seed treater in direct fluid communication with each keg station;

wherein each said seating surface is perpendicular to the direction of gravity;

wherein each keg has a stirrer mechanism; and

wherein the programmable system controller is further configured to direct a station controller to prevent operation of the stirrer mechanism during application of a chemical formulation from one of the kegs.

9. The seed treatment system of claim 8 wherein the programmable system controller is operably connected to a computer network and configured to receive and send data relating to seed treatment formulations.

10. The seed treatment system of claim 9, wherein 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.

11. The seed treatment system of claim 8, wherein each keg further comprises a support frame, and said support frame supports the respective pump at a position over the respective receiving region for the keg.

12. The seed treatment system of claim 11, wherein each keg station further an air-removal valve that is in fluid communication with the each respective pump.

13. A seed treatment system for treating seeds for delivery of the treated seeds to retail customers for planting, the seed treatment system comprising:

a seed treater having a seed inlet, a treatment portion, and a treated seed discharge portion,

a bank of keg stations, each keg station having a receiving platform for receiving a selected manually handleable keg and a fluid coupling for connecting to the keg placed on said platform, a weighing mechanism for weighing the keg placed on the platform including contents of said keg, and a variable flow pump;

the bank of keg stations fluidly connected to the seed treater; and

a control processor connected to the seed treater and to each keg station of the bank of keg stations, the control processor adapted for controlling the pumping rate of each of the respective calibrated pumps, for receiving signals relating to the weighing of the kegs at each keg station, for selectively operating simultaneously select pluralities of the variable flow pumps of the keg stations in accord with one of a plurality of formulation recipes stored in the control processor or input into the control processor, and for controlling operation of the seed treater, wherein seed treatment formulations comprising fluids from kegs on the keg stations in which the select plurality of pumps are operated simultaneously are simultaneously dispensed into the treatment portion of the seed treater;

a programmable system controller coupled to each variable flow pump at each of the keg stations for controlling each said variable flow pump;

wherein each keg has a stirrer mechanism;

wherein the programmable system controller is configured to direct a station controller to prevent operation of the stirrer mechanism during application of a chemical formulation from one of the kegs;

wherein each said platform is perpendicular to the direction of gravity, and wherein each said fluid coupling is, with respect to the direction of gravity, attached to a top side of each said keg.

14. The seed treatment system of claim 13, wherein each keg station has a pump controller connected to each respective variable flow pump.

15. The seed treatment system of claim 13, further comprising a mix tank station with a pump connected to the programmable system controller.

16. The seed treatment system of claim 13 in combination with a stock of manually handleable kegs, wherein each keg has a capacity of from 5 to 25 gallons.