3pt spreader or planter

[City Farmer]

Hi all.

I am in the process of reclaiming some old pasture, about 13 acres of grass. We want a few cows and who knows what else out there. I hired the neighbor (great guy) to plant it. He charges $18/acre, I do all the ground prep....I have another 20 acres to go. Some places he planted are great. Other parts are spotty and in some places the grass is missing the entire length of the field....a planter wide.

Will a 3pt spreader and cultipacker work as good as a planter? I am not going in to the hay business or but I want a good job. Here is an old 10ft Brillion planter I was looking at. Should I have him plant it, then I go back and spot till/overseed/cultipack or should I just buy a planter and be done with it. I still have to buy the 3pt spreader and he will loan me the cultipacker whenever I need it.

Andy

 

[Mat4644]

Just rent an overseeder.

 

[Birdhunter1]

A spreader and culti packer will work great in prepped ground. Unprepped ground rent an overseeder or not till drill. Although I have broadcast seed onto the top of wet ground and it sprouted and grew well, frost seeding works too and I've even had old timers say to spread it on top of the last snow when it starts to melt and it will suck into the ground.

 

[dusty3030]

Your local soil conservation district most often will have no till drills for rent.
Here is one I found near your posted profile location.

Rental Services

– Blue Water Conservation District

 

[mred2]

I have about 39 acres that I want to level and replant. I wanted a planter. Looked at a lot, but I just could not spend that money on something that I might only use a couple of times.
I already had a spreader. Use it for fertilizer and lime. I did purchase a cultipacker. After clean up, level, disc, cultipack, plant, cultipack again, I can still use to overseed rye grass for the winter. So, my only real purchase was the cultipacker. A lot of people use a piece of fence or bed springs, or log. The cultipacker get more seed into contact with the ground so more comes up.
Due to size and price of seed, you may want to use a hand spreader for small areas.

 

[City Farmer]

Thanks for all the ideas and help. I値l be renting that 6 planter for sure. It痴 only about 35min away from me.

I have the spreader, cultipacker and hopefully a weeks worth of rain a head of me. I値l update with some pictures as things progress. This is what I had planted 3 weeks ago. Its spotty and a couple acres didn稚 come up, it has some thistle, a whole lot of mustard and velvet leaf weeds.

I mowed the weeds before they went to seed. I was thinking about spraying with some 2,4D in late summer or the fall.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Granted this is a two person job, but what else would my wife do besides raise 4 children, work as a nurse, and be part-time farmer, but drive the tractor when needed? :laughing:

The biggest field I have done is 10 acres with this method, but it actually works pretty good considering I have $0.00 in it, and about an hour of time to set it up and build the paddles. It seeds a 30 foot swath, with a bit more to the left side than the right.

Incidentally, I always spread HALF going one way, say North/South, and then the other half going the other way, East/West. This gives me much more even coverage. To cover the seed I drag a log behind after I am done seeding. You would think this would cause seed to be hit or miss, but it doesn't!!

I spin the drill with a small generator on the front of the trailer with an electrical cord going back to the drill.

 

[Farmer495]

Hi all.

I am in the process of reclaiming some old pasture, about 13 acres of grass. We want a few cows and who knows what else out there. I hired the neighbor (great guy) to plant it. He charges $18/acre, I do all the ground prep....I have another 20 acres to go. Some places he planted are great. Other parts are spotty and in some places the grass is missing the entire length of the field....a planter wide.

Will a 3pt spreader and cultipacker work as good as a planter? I am not going in to the hay business or but I want a good job. Here is an old 10ft Brillion planter I was looking at. Should I have him plant it, then I go back and spot till/overseed/cultipack or should I just buy a planter and be done with it. I still have to buy the 3pt spreader and he will loan me the cultipacker whenever I need it.

Andy

I you are plowing and harrowing your field, then the Brillion you have in the photo is the best way to seed down to hay/pasture you can get.