Covering food plot seeds - what is your choice??

[kebo]

Looking to get something to cover up the seed with this fall. In the past we (my hunt club) have usually covered the seed by one of the following methods:
1) run the disc harrow back over it
2) tie an old bed spring to an atv and run that over it to cover up.
3) tie an old tractor tire to an atv and run that over it like in (2).
4) run the tractor tires over it (as in planting narrow firebreaks which doesn't take too long due to the narrow width of firebreaks)

If you had your choice, would you get a cultipacker, a chain drag harrow (are these available in 3pt lift style?), a spike tooth drag harrow, or something else?? Mostly we plant a variety of seeds like wheat, oats, rye, some clovers, and maybe mix in some iron clay peas. We're not being "professional" about this, just trying to get something green to come up for the deer to nibble on. Thanks for your comments.

 

[ky wonder]

if your planting the best tool you can have is a old spike toothed cultipacker,

the cultipacker wheels alternate between a toothed wheel and a smooth wheel, but any cultipacker is better than none.

i pull the thing behind my disk as i am working the ground to develop a firm and level bed and then use it without the disk to cover the seed.

In the past i have even used a old pipe gate behind, a atv with some added weight to cover seed



this photo is one of this years food plot,when i was getting it ready to plant corn in

 

[flusher]

Looking to get something to cover up the seed with this fall. In the past we (my hunt club) have usually covered the seed by one of the following methods:
1) run the disc harrow back over it
2) tie an old bed spring to an atv and run that over it to cover up.
3) tie an old tractor tire to an atv and run that over it like in (2).
4) run the tractor tires over it (as in planting narrow firebreaks which doesn't take too long due to the narrow width of firebreaks)

If you had your choice, would you get a cultipacker, a chain drag harrow (are these available in 3pt lift style?), a spike tooth drag harrow, or something else?? Mostly we plant a variety of seeds like wheat, oats, rye, some clovers, and maybe mix in some iron clay peas. We're not being "professional" about this, just trying to get something green to come up for the deer to nibble on. Thanks for your comments.

I assume you use a broadcast spreader, or maybe a drop spreader.

My preference is a grain drill and chains to cover the seed.



Bought two Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drills for $275. Spent another $250 for parts and about 2 months to clean one up and make one good drill. Plant Kanota oats.

Got pretty good results. Nice thing about drills compared to broadcast is less wasted seed that fails to germinate.

 

[kebo]

I understand about the grain drills, but we use 3pt spreader to put out the seed since it's what we have. Obviously a drill wastes far less seed, and achieves better germination, but we don't have one and I don't see us buying one either. Besides, most of our food plots are in places that would probably tear up a grain drill just trying to get it to them, such as crossing some pretty large creeks or going up/down steep hills or uneven terrain. Most years we are lucky just to get the atv's (let alone the tractors) across the creeks! In SC (and other southeast states), most hunt clubs (including mine) lease land from timber holding or investment companies and they try to maximize every square foot of acreage for pine tree production. We have almost no open areas like you do in your pic's. So, a grain drill really isn't the best way to go, at least not for us.

 

[Lt220]

We plant all of our food plots with a 3 PH broadcast spreader and then use a homemade drag built out of fencing and 2x4 lumber to drag across.....it has worked good for us for years. :thumbsup:

 

[sksmsllc]

I understand about the grain drills, but we use 3pt spreader to put out the seed since it's what we have. Obviously a drill wastes far less seed, and achieves better germination, but we don't have one and I don't see us buying one either. Besides, most of our food plots are in places that would probably tear up a grain drill just trying to get it to them, such as crossing some pretty large creeks or going up/down steep hills or uneven terrain. Most years we are lucky just to get the atv's (let alone the tractors) across the creeks! In SC (and other southeast states), most hunt clubs (including mine) lease land from timber holding or investment companies and they try to maximize every square foot of acreage for pine tree production. We have almost no open areas like you do in your pic's. So, a grain drill really isn't the best way to go, at least not for us.

Thinking of planting wheat this year using disc and 3pts spreader do you think it will work?

 

[whistlepig]

Looking to get something to cover up the seed with this fall. In the past we (my hunt club) have usually covered the seed by one of the following methods:
1) run the disc harrow back over it
2) tie an old bed spring to an atv and run that over it to cover up.
3) tie an old tractor tire to an atv and run that over it like in (2).
4) run the tractor tires over it (as in planting narrow firebreaks which doesn't take too long due to the narrow width of firebreaks)

If you had your choice, would you get a cultipacker, a chain drag harrow (are these available in 3pt lift style?), a spike tooth drag harrow, or something else?? Mostly we plant a variety of seeds like wheat, oats, rye, some clovers, and maybe mix in some iron clay peas. We're not being "professional" about this, just trying to get something green to come up for the deer to nibble on. Thanks for your comments.

Given all choices I would consider the culti-packer the first pick and a heavy lawn roller a close second.

 

[kebo]

Thinking of planting wheat this year using disc and 3pts spreader do you think it will work?

Absolutely!!!! Have been doing that for many years now. Just need to cover the seed up lightly, and pray for rain!

 

[kebo]

We plant all of our food plots with a 3 PH broadcast spreader and then use a homemade drag built out of fencing and 2x4 lumber to drag across.....it has worked good for us for years. :thumbsup:

Can you get us a picture of it????

 

[Maple Leaf]

Hi Kebo, I see you have a Leinbach #11 field cultivator, how do you like that for your foodplots??? Thanks