The effect of different sowing depth on the yield and yield-forming elements of maize

Abstract

On a global scale, maize is an important food, feed and industrial crop, with an increasing production area (Nagy, 2007 and 2021). Among the environmental impacts, extreme weathering factors caused by climate change are causing serious problems for crop stability, and maize is no exception. Precision farming is today's most innovative agrotechnical approach, which can greatly increase crop safety and reduce costs by exploiting the genetic potential of our soils and the hybrids we use (Torres, 2012). Sowing is one of the most important agrotechnical elements, and with good seeding we can ensure that we have all the requirements of a high yielding, high growing crop (Pepó, 2019). In the case of sowing, it is important to place the seed in moist soil to provide the optimum environmental conditions for the crop to ensure uniform emergence (Széles et al., 2020; Shrestha et al., 2018). Precision planting is the market leading technology in precision planters in the United States, and when cooperating with them we looked for methods to optimise the depth of sowing and to monitor the effect on yield by studying the initial development of the plants. The seeder was equipped with the company's SmartFirmer soil scanner integrated into the seed drill. Automatic seed depth adjustment based on soil moisture is an exceptional solution for uniform emergence and drought protection.