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.