Beck’s Hybrids is now the exclusive distributor of Flo-Rite™ seed firmers. Flo-Rite was developed by Jeff Peters, a farmer and inventor from Hicksville, Ohio. Bruce Kettler from Beck’s says it offers improvements over traditional seed firmer technology.
“First off it has plastic that wears better and will wear over the long term in terms of its flex and wear out ability,” he said. “The other neat feature is that it has a replaceable sole on the bottom of it so that when this wears out, depending on the soil and seed conditions, this plate will be able to be removed and just replace that piece. So a farmer will be able to certainly reduce their cost. Rather than replacing the whole item for the $35-40 range, it will be somewhere about $8 to be able to make that replacement.”
Flo-Rite also features a stainless steel fertilizer tube encased in the unit.
“So there is much less capability for trash or soil or dirt to be able to yank the fertilizer tube away. It’s a much sturdier unit.”
“For more than 75 years it has been our goal to bring farmers the best in seed quality, field performance and service, but we’re also dedicated to providing our customers with revolutionary products, said Scott Beck, vice president of Beck’s Hybrids. “We’re excited to bring farmers the Flo-Rite seed firmer technology, a reliable tool that will not only save them money, but increase their yield potential.”
Flo-Rite seed firmers improve planting depth consistency, which leads to better seed germination, more consistent emergence, better stands, and increased yields.
At Commodity Classic last week Kettler was also busy explaining their new Farm Server, Beck’s entry into the precision agriculture arena.
“We’ve been doing some things in precision ag, including crop health imaging, for a number of years. Farm Server is now our effort to put multiple sets of tools and availability for the farmer together so they can select the pieces of precision ag they want to get involved in. they’ll be able to download their data. They’ll be able to have access to the trusted advisors and give access to their trusted advisors they want to have access to that data.”
Kettler says Beck’s will add a suite of other tools and options like bringing weather information and data into Farm Server, “to allow them to be able to put that together, but have the control that they want to be able to get the information to the people that they want to give it to.”
That means the data belongs to the farmer.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Our position is that it is the customer’s data. They have control of it.”