By Olivia Hart

SmartFirmer sensors on the Agrisem Chief precision drill cost more than €21,000 on top of a basic machine price of around €69,000. That is the arithmetic facing growers who want the 6-row drill, in use since 2025 in the Dutch National Fieldlab for Precision Farming (NPPL) project, to place seed at a depth determined by live soil measurements rather than by a fixed setting.

French manufacturer Agrisem, builder of soil cultivation and drilling equipment, sources components and technology from Precision Planting, the US company owned by AGCO. The core element is SmartFirmer: a seed firmer that runs in the seed furrow and carries a temperature sensor plus a NIR sensor. During drilling it continuously records soil moisture content and soil temperature in the furrow. It also logs the level of organic matter and crop residues in the furrow — data aimed chiefly at direct drilling and mulch drilling of grain maize and soyabeans, where residue in the furrow can impair germination.

What does the sensor lineage look like?

Precision Planting introduced the SmartFirmer roughly 10 years ago. It develops the Keeton seed firmer, which Kentucky arable farmer Eugene Keeton devised in the 1990s and later sold to the predecessor of Precision Planting. The sensor unit clicks into the row unit and plugs in, so it can be retrofitted to existing machines. Growers can also fit it on alternate rows to cut cost — the NPPL drill carries SmartFirmers on three of its six rows.

That compromise exists for a reason. SmartFirmer only measures. Adjusting the machine in real time requires further components.

Which components convert data into action?

Three Precision Planting systems make the measurements work:

• DeltaForce — automatic hydraulic coulter pressure and depth control in the parallelogram of each row unit, with pneumatic control available as an option. A sensor measures coulter pressure per unit.
• SmartDepth — an electric spindle motor on the row unit that fine-tunes drilling depth on the basis of SmartFirmer readings. A pointer on the outside of each unit shows the precise setting.
• FurrowForce — discs and wheels that close the seed furrow and cover the seed, adjusted pneumatically via the drill's compressor. A load cell continuously measures pressure on the rear press wheels.

On the NPPL machine, rows one and two use the SmartFirmer values from row one; rows three and four use the sensor on row three, and so on.

FurrowForce targets direct drilling in particular. The more crop residue the furrow contains, the greater the risk of air between soil and seed. Pressing that air out improves seed-to-soil contact and, with it, moisture uptake.

Readings and settings display on Precision Planting's 20/20 terminal, which shows measured soil temperature, furrow moisture content, drilling depth and the percentage of organic matter and crop residues.

Is Precision Planting alone in this field?

No. Australian company Moisture Planting Technologies (MPT AgTech) has comparable in-house technology for determining soil moisture and organic matter or crop residue levels in real time during drilling.

The NPPL project drill will continue generating field data through the 2025 season, and growers weighing the €21,000-plus sensor package should watch those trial results — and rival systems — before committing.