It's not as bad as you think to do the seeding for a few acres. But hand-raking it in was sure a lot work. I'll be glad when I get the little turf-tired Yanmar tractor rebuilt. I loved that little tractor.
Anyway, a few hours did for the hand seeding. Then came the hand raking to cover the seed which took two long, long afternoons of back breaking work. Maybe next year the Yanmar......
That inexpensive battery broadcaster I mentioned throws seed out about six feet on each side as you walk, so you cover more ground with seed than you think. And since the seed sits on to of the prepared ground it is possible by looking closely to see how the broadcaster is doing for coverage.
A football field playing surface is real close to an acre. So figuriong walking the ten yard lines, ten trips across the field will do it. It really didn't seem like all that much walking. I refilled the hopper at each sideline and used up two or three sets of batteries was all. Maybe ten bucks in D cells. My tendency is to overseed - I tend to buy too much so why not use up all the seed? Though in spite of promising to do that and not order so much next year I still end up with partial bags of unused grass seed every year.
A specialized grass seed house sells native grass seed and I try to spend a 200/400 dollars each spring on fairly unusual native grasses.... Cultivating native grasses is a hobby and passion I share with our county Ag Extension Agent. Yes, my wife thinks we are both crazy but helps anyway. Some grasses like alkali sacatoon, blue stem, or the various panic grasses have seeds so small they are like dust. Those seeds are near invisible and can cost $80/lb & up - but a pound of any of those is a huge number of seeds compared to fescue or bromes.
rScotty