New LandPride 606NT (Great Plains) No Till Drill

[W5FL]

I finally bought a no-till drill. I got it home last Saturday and planted 15 acres for winter grazing over a coastal bermuda field.



After using it a couple of days, I had to make a few small changes to the drill.

First things first, it worked as expected even though the clay soil was extremely hard. Was able to plant oats, wheat, and triticale about 1 inch deep and planted ryegrass at the same time in a single pass! It came a slow 2 inch rain the next morning so hopefully, I will get to see some results in a few days.

 

[deranged]

If I can ask, how much did that set you back? I have tough missouri clay also, do you think it would put corn or wheat down 2" ?

 

[W5FL]

The easiest thing you can do is to search on 606NT and you will find several new (and used) Land Pride and Great Plains 606NT drills listed on the auction sites. You have to add about $1500 for freight unless you can go get them and bring them back yourself. They are identical except one is orange and the other is green. It is a 6 ft 9 row (7.5 inch spacing) drill. I bought several options including the Pull Type configuration with end wheels, Native Grass Box, Small Seeds box, Main Box Agitator, and Weight Bracket which are approximately $3000, $5043, $1440, $308, and $392 respectively. The entire package came to $19,500, which is pretty steep for me. As you can see, the 3 point mounted drill without the Native Grass Box, Weight Brackets, and extra Agitator is a lot less, but still expensive. The good news is that it plants well and can run the colters up to 3.5 inch deep and should allow openers for any reasonable depth, depending on ground conditions and weight. I planted wheat at about 1 inch deep. Not sure about corn though as many have planted it successfully by locking out 6 rows and planting 3 rows on 3 ft centers. The weight brackets hold 600 more pounds of old John Deere weights, which I am looking for as bone dry conditions were present when I planted this year.

You can rent these (or similar no-till) drills for about $350 a day, but It would take me 4 days for normal crops and longer for planting Dahl Bluestem and some other crops I want to try this spring. I was told that most people that rent, wind up buying the machine after a few delays set back their planting schedule.

I planted oats on 5 acres, wheat on 5 acres, and Triticale on the next 5 acres and mixed all of them with a little ryegrass (about 11 pounds per acre). Hope I can see which will work better for my location.

 

[kneedeep]

That is one sweet piece of machinery- I'm jealous! :drool:
I can't justify that expense for the few acres I plant for Wildlife foodplots. I use a OLD Taylor Pasture Dream to plant commercial Deer Mix (50% wheat) in soybean stubble. It does a pretty good job.



Drilled


Disked, broadcast, cultipacker

 

[Green Power]

Good looking drill you got.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

I am green with envy. Congrats on getting a really nice drill.

 

[W5FL]

Nice pictures. Keep them coming as all I have to show for my work is some small scratches in the grass where I hope 15 acres or so of winter grains will eventually come up. Got it out really late waiting on the grain drill to ship from the factory, but still have several more acres to plant this fall. Had first freeze last night, so the coastal will be dying off soon, and now I need to mow it really short before the grains start coming up to keep the weeds and grass from shading the new winter crop.

I noticed about 8 deer grazing on one of my pastures, so guess they like what cattle like! Your plots are really nice. Wonder if that works both ways, if I plant deer plot mixtures, will the cattle like that better? I was going to plant some white clover, but it gets so hot in the summer here that they are an annual crop. I have a lot of questions, so hope everyone will continue to help.

Hope this works better than broadcasting seeds did! I need a good seed germination as hay is so expensive to feed in the winter.

 

[kneedeep]

wen,
first time I used the drill, planted seed too deep and got about 10% germination. The fields in the pic were planted just in the furrow and what little dirt was on the seed was from the press wheel. It was up in 5 days after a 1 1/4" rain the second day. If you don't see some new growth pretty quick with moisture and ground warmth, maybe the seed is too deep. Also you are planting into existing sod as well. Good luck, when you get that bad boy right, you're planting is going to be quick and fun.

 

[W5FL]

Thanks for the nice comments from kneedeep, Green Power, and PoopDeck Pappy. I am glad to have the new drill, too. When I looked for used drills, they seemed to fall in two catagories. Those that had planted over 1000 acres and those that the acre counter no longer worked but they were wore out from planting along the highway right of ways. A few were just people that quickly became unhappy with their purchase and were selling to buy something else.

It has been 11 days since my first planting and the Triticale and Wheat are between 1 and 2 inches and the oats are no where to be found. The temperature has been below 24 degrees the past 3 nights, so guess I had better be happy that anything is coming up at those temperatures. The past few days have hovered a little above freezing and dropping below freezing for 12 or so hours at night. Should I give up on the oats and plant Triticale or Wheat over them if they are not up in a few more days, or will they come up in January or February?

I am going to order some weights for the drill. The service rep said any old John Deere or International Weight will fit. For three to go on, they have to be less than 1.85 inches thick (or 3 weights 5 9/16 in). I will call a couple of places, but if I can figure out which one to order, I will order them and have them shipped here. I can remember as a youngster that these weights were everywhere, but haven't seen any lately.

 

[kneedeep]

Your Drill is a impressive implement that will make your pastures a buffet for ruminants! It will plant anything and you can custom blend a seed mix for every season and application.
When I drilled a oats mix (may have got them too deep) some of the other came up but no oats. A 6" rain 3 days after drilling packed the ground and was in almost bare ground as well. I am going to figure the oats out next year and if you get a stand, please let me know the trick with a drill.
Does your drill apply fertilizer? Mine has a front hopper for fertilizer or I can mix seed/fertilizer together. Biggest thing is to clean it out good from fertilizer use. I found the easiest way to get the remaining seed or fertilizer out is to use a small shop vac with the narrow nozzle. it will get all of it out of the hoppers and I take the leftover and sow any missed spots by hand. I also use the cheapest oil I can buy to coat it after a good washing.

Send pics of the results!!