kebo
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2006
- Messages
- 2,910
- Location
- Lexington, SC
- Tractor
- 2001 John Deere 790 4x4, bar tires
Visited my folks today and found out from my dad that he was talking with the next door neighbor earlier this week while the neighbor was replacing some boards on an old barn in his yard. The discussion got around to a very old grain drill sitting there in the barn that had not been used in years. The neighbor no longer has a tractor and doesn't plan to get one either, so the neighbor knowing I had a tractor actually offered the grain drill to me, FREE!! So, I got to take a look at it today but didn't get to take a picture of it (yet). It looks to be about 6ft wide, and had nine disc's with 9 seed chutes dropping down beneath the seed hoppers to plant the seed. Both tires are dry rotted of course, and there's plenty of rust to go around on it to. But, it looks like it could actually be made to work again with a minimal amount of time, work, and money. The seed chutes are made of a flexible conduit looking material, one of them is like ripped open so it would have to be replaced. I think you might could actually use flexible conduit to replace it with. There was NO name on it or NO metal nameplate that I could find right off, but I will look a lot closer next time I'm up there, and take a couple pictures as well. The 4 seed hoppers were painted green though, but that's not much of a clue as lots of implements are painted green.
So, if I do get it and use it, it would be at my hunt club. We lease 1000acres and have a good many food plots that we plant in the fall. We typically plant oats, rye, peas, clovers, and a couple others varieties, depending on what we can get. Our usual planting consists of breaking the ground with disc harrows, then spreading the seed with a 3pt spreader, and then covering back up with the same harrow, or sometimes we just drag a piece of chain link fence or an old metal bed spring (weighted down) over it. We've even drug an old tractor tire to cover up the seed. I know this is not the ideal way, but we do the best we can with what we have.
Would the grain drill (if it does work) be a better way to go than all that above? Would the row spacing on the drill be of any concern?? We never planted in rows before! How deep should the drill be set to plant the seed?? What would be the best way to prep the soil BEFORE planting in fall? Usually by then all the food plots are covered with weeds, volunteer grasses, etc. Should we just bushhog them a couple weeks before planting? Would my JD 790 be enough tractor to pull it? I think it probably would be as it didn't look real heavy, plus I think the nine blades only dig down a few inches at the most.
You can tell by now I'm not a really knowledgeable person about this sort of stuff. I didn't grow up on a farm so don't hold that against me! I'm curious to learn something about grain drills now. I did look at some modern grain drills on tractorhouse and man, those things are EXPENSIVE!! This one looks like it could be 30-40 years old. I hope I can figure out who made it, that would be interesting to know. But, thanks for any advice you can share.....
Keith
So, if I do get it and use it, it would be at my hunt club. We lease 1000acres and have a good many food plots that we plant in the fall. We typically plant oats, rye, peas, clovers, and a couple others varieties, depending on what we can get. Our usual planting consists of breaking the ground with disc harrows, then spreading the seed with a 3pt spreader, and then covering back up with the same harrow, or sometimes we just drag a piece of chain link fence or an old metal bed spring (weighted down) over it. We've even drug an old tractor tire to cover up the seed. I know this is not the ideal way, but we do the best we can with what we have.
Would the grain drill (if it does work) be a better way to go than all that above? Would the row spacing on the drill be of any concern?? We never planted in rows before! How deep should the drill be set to plant the seed?? What would be the best way to prep the soil BEFORE planting in fall? Usually by then all the food plots are covered with weeds, volunteer grasses, etc. Should we just bushhog them a couple weeks before planting? Would my JD 790 be enough tractor to pull it? I think it probably would be as it didn't look real heavy, plus I think the nine blades only dig down a few inches at the most.
You can tell by now I'm not a really knowledgeable person about this sort of stuff. I didn't grow up on a farm so don't hold that against me! I'm curious to learn something about grain drills now. I did look at some modern grain drills on tractorhouse and man, those things are EXPENSIVE!! This one looks like it could be 30-40 years old. I hope I can figure out who made it, that would be interesting to know. But, thanks for any advice you can share.....
Keith