Lustran B3 soybean plate Question

Last while planting with the 8 20in AC planter I ran out of seed beans late one evening. I was looking for something in the barn and found 4 JD plastic soybean plates and figured I would try them in one side of the planter to see the difference it wound make. Next morning I installed the 4 JD plates in one side and left the 4 AC bean plates in the other side and filled with beans and started planting. Now the AC planter was set at 80 lbs to the acre. The next time I stopped to fill back up I found I had to add 1 more bag of seed to the 4 AC boxes to fill them full. When the beans came up you could see a difference in the beans that were planted with the JD plates, They were alittle bigger and looked better than the other 4 rows with the AC plates. So it put me to find 4 more of the JD plastic plates.
A seed dealer gave me 8 B3 32 cell soybean plates to use this year. He said with the small sized seed the seed companys are selling now I would be better off using these plates. When I asked how much of a difference it would make in the settings he could not give me any ideas. Said I would have to play with it to figure it out.
So the question is has anyone used these plates and did you have to change the seed rates up or down to plant the way you wanted it to? And how much of a difference is there between the B3 and regular JD soybean plates? I will post a picture of the 3 plate later today. Bandit

Seeding rates should be based upon how many seeds that particular variety has per pound. It also should be based on row width or if it is single row or twin row. The wider the row width the more plants per foot are required. Eighty pounds per acre is too much even for broadcast beans. The more plants per foot the more competition the plants have for nutrients and water and light. Most varieties have a seeding rate and seeds per pound on the bag. Your local county agent or soybean variety consultant would be a good place to start. We were planting as little as fifty pounds per acre on twenty inch centers depending on the variety. Call your nearest Pioneer crop consultant.

Bandit, for even more precise metering on soybeans with your plate planter it used to be recommended by Dekalb (I used to be a dealer) to use a medium or large round corn plate. Two beans will fall in each cell (almost always) and you then set the planter for population times two. It works very, very well. Mike

Here is a picture of the 3 different planter plates. The AC Chrome plates are 20 cell and 6 beans will fit in them.
The JD B2 24 cell plates will fit 4 beans in them.
The JD B3 32 cell plates will fit 2 beans in them.
The last couple years the bean seed have been small, A unit (forget the seed count)use 42 lbs a bag and these are the beans in the picture. Its bad that the seed is so small but it is cheaper to ship a bag with 160,000 seed count that weighs 42 lbs than a bag that weighs 60 lbs for 160.000 seed count. With all the new planters that are Air, Vacume or finger pick up they get one seed at a time no mater what the seed size. For all of us with plate type planters its a guessing game to get the right seed rate with all the different seed sizes. The pioneer seed dealer is the one that gave me the B3 soybean planter plates to try, But could not tell me how to set the seed rate. So that is why I am asking if anyone has used them and what they had to do to the planter to get the right seed rate. The way my planter is set now in 20 inch rows it plants 80 lbs an acre. The same setting in 30 inch rows would plant 60 lbs and acre so it the same setting. I am just trying to get it a little more accurate. Any information will be greatly appreciated. Bandit

I believe you will need to increase the planter settings. But it has been 4 years since I planted with a plate planter. I used those same B3 plates in my 1240 JD and it had good seed placement. Those smaller cell plates should plant less seed per revolution but give you much better placement. If my thinking is right you want 8-10 beans per foot of row to get 160000 on 30" rows. So I would think you would want 6-8 on 20's.