Work out how many seeds to plant per acre to hit a target final stand, and convert it to seeds per foot of row for checking the planter.
Seeding rate and seeds per row-foot
Not every seed you plant becomes a plant, so the seeding rate has to be higher than the final stand you want. Divide the target stand by expected germination and emergence:
seeding rate = target final stand ÷ (germination % × emergence %)
To check the planter, convert that to seeds per foot of row. An acre is 43,560 square feet, so the row feet in an acre depend on row spacing:
row feet per acre = 43,560 ÷ (row spacing in inches ÷ 12)
seeds per foot = seeding rate ÷ row feet per acre
Example: a 32,000 plant/acre target with 95% germination and 95% emergence needs 32,000 ÷ (0.95 × 0.95) ≈ 35,457 seeds per acre. In 30-inch rows there are 17,424 row feet per acre, so that is about 2.03 seeds per foot.