pasture reseeding ideas

   / pasture reseeding ideas #1  

MayesFarm

New member
Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Messages
14
Location
McMinnville,TN
Tractor
2030 John Deere, 4230 John Deere, 460 Farmall
I am new to the forum but I have been looking at many of the shop-built tools that you guys have built. I am thinking about building a pasture sowing/reseeding rig out of an old 8foot wheel disc and a 8foot gandy drop spreader. I would appreciate an pictures or suggestions .
 
   / pasture reseeding ideas #2  
Hi. Welcome. I am sure you can get help here.
Lot of good DIY folks here.
 
   / pasture reseeding ideas #3  
many grass seeds will not flow through a standard grain drill,
some times one can get to flow with a filler, Oats sand wheat, other, the seeds are many times fluffy and bridge and will ball up on top of the seed cup,

small round seeds will flow, but the fluffy ones will not, and on some seeds one will need the attachment called a grass seeder, (alfalfa seeder).

mixing seeds usaly does not work well, as the small heaver seeds will work there way to the bottom and not stay mixed, thus one nearly needs (depending on the seed) three boxes and seed cups, one for the very small seeds like alfalfa and switch grass, some larger smooth type of seeds, in a regular grain box, and the fluffy seeds, broam, blue grama, blue stem and Indian grass, and others that are similar, need some thing different, I use a old drop fertilizer spreader, (I made a seed basket, have heard they work on with the fertilizer feed, but never tried, it, I copied the basket from the John Deere, manual that goes with mine, or a special drill with fingered seed cups and agitator mixer
I use the drop spreader in front of a grain drill with the small seed box, on it pull both at once,
 
   / pasture reseeding ideas
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Thanks BHD can you describe the seed basket , I have never heard of it ?
 
   / pasture reseeding ideas #5  
I am new to the forum but I have been looking at many of the shop-built tools that you guys have built. I am thinking about building a pasture sowing/reseeding rig out of an old 8foot wheel disc and a 8foot gandy drop spreader. I would appreciate an pictures or suggestions .

Several years ago I build a drop seeder out of a pair of 5-ft wide grass boxes that I salvaged from an old Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill.

Drop spreader-1.JPGDrop spreader -2.JPGDrop spreader-3.JPG

The grass boxes have 20 drops which direct the seed to a 10-ft wide two-bounce seed chute that distributes the seed evenly perpendicular to the direction of motion. There's a chain drive mechanism to operate the seed cups in the grass boxes. Use it to reseed my seven acre hayfield with cover crops.

Hope this helps.

Good luck
 
   / pasture reseeding ideas #6  
If you don't want to do all that work check with your county extension office. I'm told that ours has a pasture seeder that they loan out for free. Maybe yours does too.
 
   / pasture reseeding ideas #7  
I have rented a seeder in the past, not that expensive. Rented it from a tractor dealer.
 
   / pasture reseeding ideas #8  
the seed basket is basically a shaft and some round spacers with rods on it to push the seed over the openings page out of the JD manual on the spreader, I guess they call it different than a seed basket, they call it a "Seed Broadcasting shaft".

I could no longer find any of them in stock any where, so I made mine copying the fertilizer shaft for a basic idea and size,
 

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   / pasture reseeding ideas #9  
I agree with what BHD says at #3 about the difficulties of different grass/legume seeds. I have successfully sown several hundred acres over the last 40+ years just by using a fertiliser spinner and then running over with chain harrows, lengths of chain mesh or whatever I had handy at the time. I now have chains (with spacers) permanently attached to my harrows. I just lift the harrows clear of the ground and make one run with the chains.

If anybody decides to try the spinner method. BE VERY CAREFUL. Seed is expensive and it easy to put through many times more than you want. Do a tiny, tiny experiment with the setting you first guess at. It needs only a small opening. The agitator in the spinner keeps most seeds well separated, but still aim to do two passes, one at right angles to the other.
 
   / pasture reseeding ideas
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Thanks for all the info ,I especially like BHD's set up. I made a drag of sorts (will post pix when I learn how to) to pull behind an old gandy drop seeder. Pulled the gandy out and it works like a charm now we just need some dry weather.
 

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