The increasing cost of seeds for the small grain crops and the inadequacy of the current precision planters, which do not sow crops with small inter roll spacing, this study has the objective of presenting the test results of a prototype vertical drum pneumatic meter for rice seeds. Laboratory tests were conducted to determine the seed metering precision (with pressure range of -56.0; -62.7 and -73.1 kPa, peripheral speeds of 0.10, 0.22 and 0.30 m s-1, and hole diameters of 1.2 and 1.5 mm), seed longitudinal distribution (with seed hoper at 25 and 50% of capacity, lateral inclination of 0 and 11º, and 1.5 mm diameter holes) and mechanical seed injury, in fully randomized experiments. Means of treatments were compared using analysis of variance. The conclusions were that the best results for seed meter were obtained with the lower speed with the lower pressure level, regardless of the hole size. The percentage of singles metering was as high as 68.4%, in average, with the 1.5 mm diameter hole. The seed longitudinal distribution achieved 37.6% of singles times at the end of the seed tube. The level of seeds in hoper and the lateral inclination did not significantly affect the precision. The prototype did not raise the amount of injured seeds.
precision meters; vacuum metering; small seeds
