Recently changing consumption trends, along with improved economies of scale, have led large numbers of agricultural field producers to abandon their traditional seeding and allocations, planting specialty crops such as lentils, peas, and other vegetables and grains in the place of traditional staples such as wheat and the like.
These new specialty crops require different, and in some cases intensified, farm treatment and management practices. This crop changeover has in many cases necessitated modifications to farming practices, including changes to procedures and equipment used from the seeding to the harvest of such specialty crops. One particular procedure which has arisen with respect to the growth of such legume crops as lentils and peas has been the added step of treatment of the seed with a rhizobium inoculant, in order to increase crop protection and yield. The inoculant consists of any number of treatment elements for the seed, the most important of which being large amounts of one or more strains of rhizobia bacteria. Along with the rhizobia, and any other treatment elements which producers or agricultural developers might wish to apply to the seed, the other major component of an inoculant is a carrier.
These inoculants are available in a number of formats, including liquid, dry and adhesive ("sticky" format). A liquid inoculant obviously has an inert liquid carrier which allows for the adhesion of the active elements of the inoculant to the seed. Liquid inoculants are problematic in that they consist of substantial volume, where any significant amount of dilution is done to make the even application any less problematic. This has a number of other effects as well. The larger the amount of carrier which is used, the heavier and larger the inoculant packaging becomes, increasing transport costs for the manufacturer and eventually the consumer price to the farmer for the product. Also, the packaging itself which is used is problematic in that rigid packaging, such as plastic jugs, needs to be used for the liquid and the farmer is then left with a significant disposal problem after treating the seed. Liquid inoculant can also have detrimental and fouling effects upon the seeding implements and other farm machinery used, which are designed for the treatment and handling of dry product. If water is used as a carrier, rusting of farm equipment may take place over time. If other rust-inhibiting liquid carriers are used, there may be detrimental effects on the land, and production costs for the inoculant product may again be increased.
Dry inoculant would have an inert powdered carrier. The problem with dry inoculants is that they do not adhere at all to the seed as the inoculant is applied, and by the time the seed is handled through the augers and then through the seeding equipment itself there is no way to ensure that any sort of even coverage is obtained. With any large amount of movement of the farm seeding equipment, the dry inoculant can quite easily work its way down to the bottom of the hopper in which the seed stock is stored for seeding, and as such no even distribution is attained and the inoculant may end up in large isolated deposits in the seeded crop.
A newer product which is becoming favoured by producers, are the quasi-dry adhesive inoculants. These consist of an adhesive carrier, such as peat moss or the like, to which the active ingredients are mixed and which `sticks` to the seed as the seed is treated and maintains its adhesive quality for long enough to keep the beneficial ingredients of the inoculant adhered to the seed throughout handling in the seeding equipment, to the placement of the seed in the soil. The main problem with the application of the adhesive inoculant is that it is difficult to obtain even coverage without over-treatment, because by the very nature of the product it does not flow easily and evenly from its shipping container into the treatment auger. Lumps can form, causing over-treatment in some areas, while flow from the package may plug up on occasion creating pockets of non-treated seed as well.
The benefit to both the dry and adhesive inoculants is that they can be packaged and shipped in smaller containers, such containers usually being able to be cubical in shape (such as stackable bags), requiring less overall packaging and wasting less transport space. Costs to the producer for the transport aspect of the production of the inoculant can be lowered in this way.
It is necessary to apply the inoculant as soon before seeding as possible, because prolonged exposure deactivates large numbers of the beneficial rhizobia bacteria in the inoculant. Inoculation of the seed is done by application of the inoculant to the seed as it is augered into the farm seeding equipment--drills, air seeder, etc. As such one of the problems involved in applying the inoculant to the seed is one of safety--the auger operator is currently required to feed the inoculant into the drill auger along with the seed and in order to lessen the contact and exposure to air of the inoculant it is necessary to operate in close proximity to the moving auger. The inherent safety concerns here are obvious.
A second consideration for the farmer in treating the seed as it is loaded into the seeding equipment is one of cost versus efficiency. These inoculants are costly, and the seed requires even and sufficient treatment for the inoculant to be effective. However in order to maintain the cost efficiency of the treatment, the inoculant cannot be over-applied. One answer to this problem has been to attempt to dilute the active ingredients sufficiently with the carrier so that less scientific precision is required in order to provide an even and cost-efficient distribution of the inoculant throughout a batch of seed. This still, however, requires some amount of accuracy.
This invention has in contemplation the provision of a precise and constant method for the application of rhizobia inoculants or the like to agricultural crop seed as the seed is otherwise handled--i.e. augered, in order to ensure even and sufficient coverage of the seed with the inoculant, while keeping over-treatment and waste to a minimum and maintaining farm safety.