Patent ID: 8701575

Claim:
A seed metering assembly for a farm implement including a hopper sized to hold a volume of particulate material and having a discharge opening for passing of particulate material to a number of delivery runs, the assembly comprising: a housing for mounting generally adjacent the discharge opening of the hopper and upstream of the number of delivery runs; a metering device contained within the housing and having a plurality of fluted sections mounted to a rotor, wherein adjacent fluted sections are spaced from one another by a non-fluted portion; and a plurality of flow control devices, each flow control device having a blocking member, being associated with a respective one of the plurality of fluted sections and being independently movable between a first position in which particulate material is permitted to be fed from the discharge opening of the hopper to the respective one of the plurality of fluted sections of the metering device at a flow rate and a second position in which the blocking member of the flow control device is placed between the respective one of the plurality of fluted sections of the metering device and a portion of the discharge opening of the hopper generally aligned with the respective one of the plurality of fluted sections of the metering device to cause flow of particulate material to the respective one of the plurality of fluted sections of the metering device to be substantially blocked.