Milestones of Field Breeding Machinery Development

That the field breeding experiment machinery became a discipline firstly owes to the innovation of the Oyjord plot seed drill. Mr. Egil Oyjord, Agricultural University of Norway (now named Norwegian University of Life Sciences) developed and produced the in Norway from 1960. The International Association on Mechanization of Field Experiments (IAMFE)” was founded in June 1964 at the Norwegian Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Vollebekk, Aas..
Oyjord plot seed drill could sow certain volume of seed to a plot with certain area. The key part is seed cup cone type seeder. A seed package is pure in a cylinder with a funnel on top. The cylinder is contact with a cone. When the cylinder is lift up by a handle, seed will be evenly felled along with the surface of the cone to a cell division lattice. The cell division lattice is driven by ground wheel through a transmission with non-step adjustment. Adjust the transmission when the planter runs a length of plot, the cell division lattice will be rotate one cycle. When a cell is aligned with a hole on the base surface, the seeds will fell down to the seed tube and sowing to soil by coulter. It has the features of accuracy self cleaning and non-stop operation. At present, Oyjord drill has been popularized to all over the world.
The plot precision planter for corn, soybeans, edible beans, sunflower, sorghum, cotton and so on has been innovated. It used vacuum air actuator for accurate seed count down and in row spacing, also for seed clean-out. At present, planting with GPS has been used on plot planters.
In 1958 Wentersteiger developed first plot combine harvester. Now this kind of harvester could collect data of moisture, yield, etc. It also could self clean and reaches the non stop operation.
Computer controlled sprayer could continuously change the components and dosages when it pass the plot. This is another breakthrough for breeding experiment machinery.
The plot machinery has extended into grass and forest breeding industry. It has systemically formed a discipline.