No Till Seed Drill

[Fullthrottle]

Is there any such thing as a low cost seed drill? I want a 6ft one to plant Rye grass in my pastures.

 

[cowboydoc]

I don't know about low cost but they do make them. We used to get contracts from the federal govt. to seed BLM land. They had big seeders that you could use but they would only let you use two for each contract. Well we would do 40 and 50 thousand acre contracts. We bought alot of those six and eight foot seeders and then made a hitch so you could pull four or five of them together. Anyway to make a long story short we used to find alot of those no til seeders around for sale for not very much money. They usually went for between $100-500. I'm not sure what one would be brand new. You might want to call your FSA office. When you put in CRP ground they have those no til seeders that you can use to put down the required grasses. They would at least be able to tell you where they buy them from or may have one for sale.

 

[ddl]

Landpride makes a drill like that, I would have one in a heart beat except for the fact that new it costs about $3000.00 and used ones usually have a lot of rust. Still I would like one.

Dan L

 

[jdkid]

Hi ya
ya just over sowing or regrassing??if ya want some pointers let me know ,i'm a no till contractor but based in New Zealand.do ya have a dept of agri (i think thats what i'd call them )they may know where a small drill is to hire or someone who works with turf might have one
catch ya
JD Kid

 

[Fullthrottle]

My pastures are fescue. I just want to plant rye for the deer to feed on this winter. Would that be considered oversewing? Cowboydoc, If I could find one for $500.00 that would be sweet!

 

[Phred]

jdkid,

I to have been thinking about one of these. The issue for me is that I have about 60 acres that is open pasture and the previous owner overgrazed. The result is that its now mostly weeds.
I do not want to till since my property is pretty steep in places and I will probably loose a significant amount of the topsoil that is left while I wait for the grass to sprout.
Therefore, do most folks use a herbecide like roundup and then the seed drill?
Is it possible to use a broadleaf killer that might spare the small amount of grass that exists and kill off the weeds?
What little grass I have is mostly fescue. I worry about feeding this to horses since I have heard that endophyte-infected fescue grass is posinous to horses. Can one buy endophyte free fescue and If so is it possible to prevent infection of this new grass?

Thanks for any input.

Fred

 

[gerard]

I've been using "weed b gone" (an ortho product which killes broadleaf weeds but not grasses) instead of roundup along my fence line because it is just as effective and much cheaper. You could use that to spray a whole pasture and it would leave the grass unharmed and only kill the weeds etc. Just need a way to apply it in large quantities.

 

[Phred]

Gerard,

Thanks for the feedback. Application is no problem with a tractor mount boom sprayer.

I wonder if this stuff is cheaper than roundup in bulk.

Fred

 

[cowboydoc]

If you could get out west I know you could find one for that. Quite a few of them around out there. Yes what you are doing is considered overseeding.

 

[cowboydoc]

Fred,
To answer you questions you can do a couple of things. 1. You would want to spray with 2-4d. This will kill the weeds but will leave any of your grass. Then you can keep it mowed. This will keep control of the weeds and let the grass take over again. If you keep it mowed your grass will take over in a season or two.

2. You can spray with 2-4d and wait for this to kill the weeds. Then mow it and then you can overseed it with a seeder.

Now as far as the fescue NO it is NOT poisonous to horses!!! What it does is causes pregnant mares to sometimes abort. A non-pregnant horse though can eat all they want without any problems at all. YES you can buy endophyte free fescue seed to plant that is safe for pregnant mares.

 

[Alan L.]

I am NOT a farmer, and have no knowledge or experience in this area. However, before putting out ryegrass I read extensively about it on the internet and learned that ryegrass seed is one that does very well when simply broadcasted on the ground, that is, it does not have to be "planted", as long as it gets down to the ground and gets in contact with the ground. This applies whether planting new ground or overseeding.

I sure hope this is true because I just broadcasted 500# on about 3 or 4 acres, and now I'm waiting for rain. This was mostly bare ground that I went over with a tandem disk before broadcasting the seed. I also overseeded some of the other pasture.

Alan L., TX

 

[cowboydoc]

Alan,
It will really help if you can lightly harrow it as well. Yes broadcasting like you did will work but you are probably only going to get around 25-30% germination rate. Compared to about 80% or better with seeding with a drill. This study was done at Boise State University for the BLM. They used to just broadcast seed with airplanes and weren't getting the results they wanted. BSU came in and did this study for them and that's when they started using drills instead of broadcasting it.

 

[jdkid]

Hi ya's
sorry i have not got back to ya sooner but have been drilling the last few days .. now few steps to follow 1 soil test and fix any probs before ya start..2 graze/mow to get as much green as pos as spray don't kill dead grass!!!!!.....3 get good info on chem's and seed for your area ....4 spray aim for a good kill some even 2X spray leaveing 60-100 days between sprayings to clean up hard to kill grasses and prob weeds.....5 drill now this is the make or brake don't buy a crop drill 7+ inch spaceings ya want 6 inch or smaller ,or cross drill (N-S and E-W drilling in same padock) tines are cheaper and cheeper runing costs discs are ok in trash but lots of bearings to fix.now oversowing is no spray ie graze to the ground and drill in new grasses works ok but can stuff up big time ,target spraying (leaving grass) is good but some sprays can hurt new clover so ask if any resadue(?) some will hang around for up to 6 months!!!!! full kill is best .now i also saw about endo in fescue ya can get low endo i think i don't know bout horses but high endo lowers wieght gains in sheep it's only use is for the plant on some pests if the pests are not a prob in your area then use low endo-endo free grasses ..ya have to get rid of all the old grasses so 2 or 3 years brake or non endo carriers should be grown oats ,clovers,greenfeed crops,nitro alfalfa (1 year)to help clean ya ground before drilling new grasses also gives ya a bit of time to fix ant fert probs...ok what other things oh yea broadcasting V's drilling seed has to touch soil to grow so harrow seed after broadcasting will help there has been stuff done in NZ on sprayed ground with good rates of plants liveing done wrong only 20% strike with only 5%lasting to year 2 ..drilling up to 90%+ is pos
catch ya
JD Kid

 

[cowboydoc]

Excellent point on the soil testing jdkid! I forgot that one.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Yes you can buy endophyte free fescue but...it is much more difficult to establish and will not stand up to abuse as will the infected variety. The endophyte helps the fescue maintain its vigor, resistance to insects, low moisture and overgrazing. There is a new fescue on the market that while still containing beneficial endophytes, does not contain the ones responsable for problems in wildlife and livestock. I don't remember the company but a search on the net would probable show it. You are right that most animals, including rabbits deer, horses, cattle etc. , have some problems when only fed infected fescue. Low conception rates, rough coat and general unthriftiness are some of the usual symptoms. Overseeding with a legume such as clover seems to dilute the endophyte's bad issues. Your best bet may be to spray at least 2 times 4 weeks apart with roundup per the label then overseed your intended product in accordance with the products labeling.
Sorry for the long post.
Hope this helps
Greg H