Seeding grasses

[Blee25]

Got a question for anyone who might know. I have about 4 acres of pasture and about 5 acres of hayfield. Both are in sound shape but I would like to a mixture are grass seed to improve both. My question is would you a "cone" type 3pt spreader to broadcast seed be a decent option, our would it just feed some birds and rot on top top of the ground?

Thanks
Blee

 

[AKfish]

IMO, I think you answered your own question with the last comment.

With 9 acres that need attention; I'd get in touch with my local NRCS office and see if they might have an overseeder that you could rent.

Although, not knowing how big a tractor you currently have, etc. -- you might need to look into renting a tractor and an overseeder from an equipment rental dealer.

Best of luck.

AKfish

 

[jwcinpk]

Everyone you talk to is going to have their own idea about how this is supposed to be done correctly.
Sure you can use the cone 3 pt spreader. I just seeded about 25 acres with one. The old fashioned way to do it is with a disc and a spreader. Turn your disc so it's going straight and round and round you go. Doesn't kill the existing grass if you don't go overboard. Then spread your seed. Rain washes your seed in and usually covers the seed with dirt some.
I don't think there is really a right and wrong way to do it. Some work better for different soil types etc.

 

[GreenMtns]

Everyone you talk to is going to have their own idea about how this is supposed to be done correctly.
Sure you can use the cone 3 pt spreader. I just seeded about 25 acres with one. The old fashioned way to do it is with a disc and a spreader. Turn your disc so it's going straight and round and round you go. Doesn't kill the existing grass if you don't go overboard. Then spread your seed. Rain washes your seed in and usually covers the seed with dirt some.
I don't think there is really a right and wrong way to do it. Some work better for different soil types etc.

I have done it this way in the past and while you don't get 100% germination it does rejuvenate a worn out field pretty good. When the disk is set straight it is only cutting slots in the field and not tearing it up. Most of the seed will fall down into the grasses and a lot will go into the slots. Then, as jwcinpk says, a little rain and the job is finished. Not the way a farm field would be done, but you aren't looking to plow the whole field up.

 

[chh]

I have overseeded clovers with just a hand spreader before. I ended up with a pretty stand. A regular seeder or planter would work best, but the discing would be better and even dragging with a harrow after spreading seed seems to help quite a bit. Grass seed doesn't need very much coverage at all(too deep will prevent it from coming up too) so anything that helps provide good soil contact will work, from my experience.

 

[bjr]

I've seen this question before and I think some kind of build-it-yourself seed drill would be of benefit or a factory made grain drill with seed boxes. Smaller used grain drills around my area are scarce. I would like to have one as I get asked to make pastures on smaller 1 acre on less lots frequently. Factory made overseeders kill you with sticker shock. I've looked for ready made seed hoppers (can be made of plastic) that have the metering or stirring shafts for a custom built 5' seeder but came up empty. I don't know if a drop spreader would work for this? If any one has ideas for a some made with a single axle coulters for openers and seed hoppers on top kind of contraption? I've use the spinner spreader method and had to dump dry fertilizer for filler to help meter the grass seed, but the seed kinda floated to the top and felt like I just wasn't getting the distributed properly. bjr

 

[jimg]

It seems spreading by itself wouldnt give a good stand due to poor soil/seed contact. Maybe dragging a packer behind the spreader would correct that.

 

[AKfish]

I hate havin' to redo things over... As much as I'd like to "just get it done with"; goin' about it the quickest and easiest sometimes just ain't always the best way to get it done.

Everyone has pointed out that you need good "seed-soil contact". That's hard to do with an existing stand of grass.

Most recommendations are to drag, disc or coulter the grass into the soil. If your existing stand is pretty thin, then any of those treatments will likely give you good germination and new grass.

If you've got a thicker stand of existing grass, then the dragging and/or discing might disrupt the growth of the established grass to the extent that you'll not get much production for this season. Maybe that's not a concern.

Could be that all you're lookin' for this season is to get some new grass goin' and you don't care about tryin' to make use of any growth later in the fall, etc.

AKfish

 

[jimg]

Another thought...in your case since a burn down isnt in the plan then what ever is there (grass/weeds) is going to compete w/ the new plants. Perhaps the time to reseed is in the fall when that competition is much less (at least from weeds) + the cooler temps + winter rains. I think you might also need to seed at a much higher rate to get a real benefit. Have you looked into renting a drill from your coop/tractor dealer/farm store? I think thats the best bet b/c it gets the seed below ground and firmed up to the soil + it does nearly no damage to whats there now + is a one pass operation (vs disc & spread). In my experience drill rental is pretty inexpensive.

 

[Blee25]

thanks for the advice, both the pasture and the hayfield still in pretty decent shape. I think I will just focus on maybe spreading fertilizer to keep them sound.

 

[jimg]

Another way of looking at this is to give the grass thats there a big advantage. Hit the broad leaf trash w/ 2,4d (or similar) and fertilize. Perhaps that would be enough to crowd out all but what you want to keep. On the flip side fertilizing weeds will absolutely positively cause your fields to be reseeded.

 

[mark.r]

Just walked in the house from broadcasting 50lbs. of paddock mixture in my last paddock. I then ran the harrow over it. I have done this in both my bare fields and and pastures that simply needed some "help" to become fuller. This was of course along with the necessary lime and fertilizer.

This paddock was done about 45 days ago . . . it's actually longer now than the last picture shows.

Harrowed>Fertilized>Broadcast Seeded>Harrowed>Limed = Worked Well!!!

 

[HayDR]

Got a question for anyone who might know. I have about 4 acres of pasture and about 5 acres of hayfield. Both are in sound shape but I would like to a mixture are grass seed to improve both. My question is would you a "cone" type 3pt spreader to broadcast seed be a decent option, our would it just feed some birds and rot on top top of the ground?

Thanks
Blee

You can rent a NO-Till Drill to over seed your hayfield and pasture. If you have too many weeds you might have to bust the sod and start from scratch. No-Till Drills are usually available to be rented from a COOP or Feed Store.

 

[mark.r]

You can rent a NO-Till Drill to over seed your hayfield and pasture. If you have too many weeds you might have to bust the sod and start from scratch. No-Till Drills are usually available to be rented from a COOP or Feed Store.

Couple of questions . . .

1. What's the difference between the Haybuster CCI has pictured and a Brillion Seeder?

2. Looking at the spec sheets for Brillions, a number of there models seem to cross over. For example, if I was looking to boost my hay crop and over-seeding and/or planting a freshly disc'd and harrowed pasture with grass seeds which would be better: Sure Stand Ag Seeder, Landscape Seeder, or the Turfmaker II Landscape Seeder. They all look like the would work but the Sure Stand Ag seems to be the better choice. That said, the Turfmaker II looks to have the capability to do oats and wheat while the Sure Stand doesn't list rates for oats and wheat. Any thoughts or explanations from any more experienced users?

 

[ddivinia]

Everyone you talk to is going to have their own idea about how this is supposed to be done correctly.
Sure you can use the cone 3 pt spreader. I just seeded about 25 acres with one. The old fashioned way to do it is with a disc and a spreader. Turn your disc so it's going straight and round and round you go. Doesn't kill the existing grass if you don't go overboard. Then spread your seed. Rain washes your seed in and usually covers the seed with dirt some.
I don't think there is really a right and wrong way to do it. Some work better for different soil types etc.

I am doing exactly that in some of my pastures that I could not sprig last year.

In the pastures that I took out a lot of stumps, I will put some angle on my disc. The other areas - straight only. Then use my 3 pt spreader to throw the seed.

My local NRCS office has seed WAY cheaper than anywhere else.

They are recommending that in a couple years - I put clover out on top of it for the cows but until I get my weeds under control it is a waste.

D.