Grain drills? tell me about them

[clemsonfor]

Interesting. I just talked to Southern States today about purchasing lime and using their spreader. I will have to ask about the availability of a drill. What is Southern States? A franchise of some sort or a co-op? I am not familiar with them . I see there is one in Anderson, about 30 miles away.

HCJ call you loacal Clemson extsion servvice. Ours in my are will rent drills and planters to do this and charge by the acre and maybe day as well. I think say (made up #'s) $30/day plus some fee per acre. They know how much you plant as there is a counter on the machine that uses wheel revolutions and then its calibrated for the width of the machine.

Just a note, grain drills will plant small seeded grains. A drill for wheat will not plant larger seeds like sunflowers and corn. You will need to get a planter for this. They should have equipment to do either though.

 

[HCJtractor]

If you have the plow and intend to work the land i don't see why you'd spend so much money on a no-till drill when a decent 15ft disc drill could be bought for 2-300, We used to seed 300 acres with a 12 foot disc drill before things got big ?

OK, let me show my ignorance. I thought a grain drill was a grain drill. What is a disc drill? Yes the no till is an interesting option and I know it is the wave of the future, but are there drills that require soil prep like I do, and other types that don't? I dont want some really complex expensive piece of machinery, but just something to be better than slinging out seed. Ideally I would like it to be able to plant wheat, rye oats, clover, peas, soybeans, corn. But is this possible? Or am I delusional?

 

[smstonypoint]

OK, let me show my ignorance. I thought a grain drill was a grain drill. What is a disc drill? Yes the no till is an interesting option and I know it is the wave of the future, but are there drills that require soil prep like I do, and other types that don't? I dont want some really complex expensive piece of machinery, but just something to be better than slinging out seed. Ideally I would like it to be able to plant wheat, rye oats, clover, peas, soybeans, corn. But is this possible? Or am I delusional?

I believe that disc- and no-till drills are synonymous. A conventional grain drill requires conventional tillage (plowing, disking, etc.) to prepare a seed bed. A no-till(age) drill doesn't. You can drill in crop residue, sod, (after a chemical burn down), etc. Either type of drill will handle all of the seeds you mentioned except corn. As mentioned by another poster, that takes a planter. Note that there are both conventional and no-till planters.

I think that you will find that no-till drills and planters will be more expensive than their conventional counterparts. They are also heavier. For example, its going to take a lot more tractor to handle an 8-foot no-till drill than a 8-foot conventional drill.

 

[clemsonfor]

Like others said conventional drills need a prepped smooth soft seedbed to drill into. No till you spray glyphosate after cutting the crop to kill the residual crop and to kill weeds then you just drag the No-till -drill around and it has disks that somewhat chop residue and slice open a seed forrough and then the seed is dropped in and then coved back. This means that you spray your whole field then you can just drag the drill around after spraying 41% glyphosate (roundup or any generic is what is used). Note if you have old pasture you cant just kill the thick grass and think you will have good success planting in that thick mess, i would think. First time you will probly need to bust up what you have then the spray and plant method should work a lot better each successive year.

Take corn or wheat, the farmer has a standing crop. He either cuts it for hay or picks the corn. In the wheat hay scenario all that is left is the stubble, in corn you have the corn stubble but the stalks that are left after harvest. In both cases they will prolly spray glyphosate 2-4 weeks before they plan to plant then they can just pull the drill around with the next crop they plan on planting.

 

[hrcarver]

I recently purchased a barely used(9.7 acres) 3 point 6' great plains no till drill.

Spray and plant, couldn't be easier. :thumbsup:

For a couple grand you are probably going to be looking at conventional drills. I have about 4x that in mine and think I got a decent deal, 6'-7' new no tills with large and small seed boxes are running about 12-18k.:shocked:

 

[HCJtractor]

That's a nice looking piece of machinery! I am sure if growing crops for profit is your goal, that is the way to go. But to feed deer, a conventional drill seems good for my purposes, way better than broadasting seed. Two more questions:

What should I look for in a used 6 to 8 foot drill? What brands, models, and how does one evaluate the condition? Average price?

And can it plant a wildlife blend adequately? (wheat, rye, oats, clover, etc.)
Obviously these seeds are all very different. What would happen if a bag of this is run thru a drill? Or do you have to make separate passes (which kinda defeats the purpose of trying to simplify things)

Thanks for the info! Keep it coming!

 

[hrcarver]

It will not do good planting blends. That is the purpose of the two(or three) boxes on most new drills. You have will have to make multiple passes for winter peas, wheat, clover, etc.

FWIW blends are usually overrated and make proper maintenance more difficult. Just plant two or three different plots.:thumbsup:

 

[Turkeyman]

Wilson Tractor in Newberry rents a haybuster which is a 7' wide no till drill that also puts down fertlizer. Think it goes for $8-10 per acre which will offset the cost of fertlizer. That same drill new is about $18,000 but it needs about 75 hp on the pto to pull it. It is a drag type, not 3pt hitch.
I recently bought a 605NT great plains and just planted 19 acres with it the past 2 Saturdays. It would do better if it was not so dry as the press wheels have trouble closing the furrow but I am very impressed so far. I keep some weight in my FEL bucket to offset its 2300 lb weight w/out seed.

The NT drill keeps you from losing soil moisture from tilling/disking.

 

[kebo]

Hello Keith, yeah, the drills I see advertised seem to be about 2 grand, but I would not know what I was looking at. Have you ever used one?

Are you hunting this year?

No, I've not used a grain drill. Was hoping to get that one going but it didn't work out. I will be hunting at the start of rifle season next month, in Union county to be more precise. I think you're hunting somewhere around Greenville, right?? Good luck to you if you get out there!

 

[flusher]

I plant about 10 acres of food plots. Slowing I am accumulating the ideal equipment to facillitate this. Restored a nice Ford plow and a Deere fertilizer distributor. Next is a good rotary tiller so I can get rid of my worthless Leinbach disc. Maybe a cultipacker later. I don't know anything about drills, as we have always broadcast seed (wheat, oats, rye, clover) and hope someday to plant soybeans and corn. What advantages do grain drills offer? Are they worth it? Same soil preparation as we have always done (plow, disc, level)? I would need a narrow one (about 6 or 7" working width). Which ones should I look for and how do you assess one for wear? Do they break down often? How much could I expect to pay? Anything you tell me about grain drills is more than I know! Thanks for teaching me!

If you're handy, you can get a vintage grain drill cheap and fix it up. Three years ago I found a pair of 1940s Minneapolis Moline P3-6 drills (10 ft wide, 20 drops, single disc openers). Cost: $275 plus about $150 in new parts, mostly nuts and bolts.



I assume you want to find a used one--new drills cost mucho bucks. Don't buy one until you check it out thoroughly. Make sure all the parts are there. I was lucky and had two nearly identical drills so I had enough parts to make one good drill plus spares. Check the seed cups in the bottom of the seed hoppers. If they're very rusty and/or not rotating, you'll have to disassemble the feeds and clean them up. Not hard, just time consuming.

My drills have two smaller hoppers for small seeds like alfalfa, grass, etc. I plant Kanota oats on 6 acres and use the feeds in the large hopper for that job. I also spread granulated fertilizer with the drill using the large hopper.

Some drills have double disc openers which probably work a little bit better than the single disc openers as on my drill.

You need some sort of drag chain setup attached to the drops to cover the seed. You can see the ones I use in the photo.

I added a hydraulic cylinder to the drill to raise and lower the disc openers while making turns. Some older drill come with trip clutches for this task--you pull the rope on the clutch to raise and lower the openers.

Grain drills generally waste less seed than broadcast spreaders. And you can cover the seed better with a grain drill. The seed doesn't have to be deep (an inch or two), but the seed has to be in good contact with the soil.

My drill did pretty good. Here's what my oat crop looked like last April



Good luck.