Seed drill?

[Lowdown]

Quick question- we've been planting by hand a lot of wheat lately. I have access to a small tractor, think bush hog type size.

I've heard of a "seed drill" that makes planting grain, etc. much easier. Any ideas what something like this costs new and used? We end up losing a lot of grain broadcasting it then hand raking to cover it, no matter how good of a job you do, the birds and deer get some of it.

Thanks

Lowdown3

[backwoods]

The no-till seed drill is probably to large for you.The seed planter can be used with a fairly small tractor but why bother?Plow and harrow the ground as usual,broadcast the seed,quite heavy,then run a disc over them to cover or drag them in with something heavy,then cultipack and wait for rain.This works for us on small acreage.

The seed planter does all this in one pass and is inexpensive compared to a no-till drill.A few hundred dollars around here for a used one.Good luck.

[farminghandyman]

I had a neighbor give me 3 nice usable John Deere Van Brunt style 14' drills, in the 1950 to 1960 range, my son in scrap iron hauls them off for scrap a lot, I think he has hauled off over a dozen of them in the last year.

I would think $50 would get you one, if they have been sheded and ever nice may be more, easily, DR or RB model maybe, a B, you can uslay get a manual on EBay, Deere still carries some parts or has up grade parts,(disks and the main wear items).

this is the type of drill I am talking about, EBay Item number: 200154334135
this one is a little newer (guessing the 1960+, note the curved box, the older like in this auction, Item number: 130156018387 this one is a FB, (f is for fertilizer) the B drill used the fluted cups and the others used a different style of cup and feed, I personally like the dual wheel type cup, (large and small sized wheel feed, and uslay 5 different speeds end wheel driven (speed by change of gr ears), I think you have more control over the seeding process with the dual sided feed cup over the sliding fluted feed, (I have both styles) the other option is the spacing of the openers, normally disks, uslay 7" 10" I think they may have made 6" and 12" and even a 14" spacing, if you want wider spacing you can block off some feed cups,

there are 10' wide and 14' wide units, if you run in to a 7' (I don't know if it factory or jsut a 14' unit cut in half, (I did this so I could replant if I had a problem) a small tractor will pull one, (they were original pulled with two horses, when they were jsut the Van brunt company and wood boxes on them)

(and would normally avoid a unit with fertilizer on it, (more than likely it will be rusted out),

and I would not buy any thing pre WW2 for use,

this one is a cut down "B" drill, Item number: 150162722040
this looks like a factory (not cut down) "FB" and is a 7.5' wide unit, Item number: 330166975529

[FarmboyBill]

Originally Posted by Lowdown

Quick question- we've been planting by hand a lot of wheat lately. I have access to a small tractor, think bush hog type size.

I've heard of a "seed drill" that makes planting grain, etc. much easier. Any ideas what something like this costs new and used? We end up losing a lot of grain broadcasting it then hand raking to cover it, no matter how good of a job you do, the birds and deer get some of it.

Thanks

Lowdown3

I have a 1924 McCormack Deering 16 hole grain drill that I paid $2.50 for at an auction near 40 yrs ago. It does not have a small seed box to sow clovers and alfalfa,as it will sow them in the big box along with wheat oats rye, ect. A steel wheeled drill in good condition will sow as good as a rubber tired one, and cost less, If you buy one, either get the operators manual on how to set and lube it, or find somebody who knows how to operate it, or youll have an hard time getting it to sow at the rates you are wanting, if you even know those rates yourself. You will need a tractor the size of say a B Farmall on up, a B JD on up, a C allis on up, a 60 Oliver on up in size, or a 44 MH on up. A Ford N series will work also. If you need any furthur clarification, just ask. When you use a drill, I always go arouond the field twice, then back and forth up and down the field till it is sowed. ALWAYS overlap your wheel from the track you made previous with the drill. Stay alert, you dont want any bald spots. Good luck

[sammyd]

Finding a nice small drill around here is quite a task. The deer plotters will pay big money for smaller drills. Saw a really nice 6 footer for 800 and a decent 8 footer for 600.
I broadcast and drag oats in with a springtooth harrow behind the tractor. Small plots about 1/2 acre. Did really well the first year but this year the lack of rain really had bad consequences for the yield.
And no matter what you do with a drill the birds and deer are going to get some of it as well. Unless you put it in so deep it won't germinate.

[Windy in Kansas]

Price will depend a lot upon where you live whether in a grain producing state or one that has very little agriculture.

The size of grain drill will also be determined by location to a certain extrent. Same for spacing for the row openers as to whether the drill normally has to open the soil and drill it deep to get into moisture or whether it can normally be planted fairly shallow. The spacing will also depend upon the kind of soil you have in an area. For very sandy soil that is prone to wind erosion closer spaced rows is the norm. Spacing for rows can typically be anywhere from 8 inches to 14 inches for wheat. An older unit may very well be 10 inch spacing and will be fine for most anywhere on small acreage. The soil opener will probably be disc style but may be hoe style with kind of a chisel point. For drought like conditions you will need to plant deeper which is what a hoe drill is best at.

I realize you may not be relying upon your crop for your income so may be able to get by with a less than desirable drill, i.e. with more wear. See whether the discs are worn too small to work properly and if a John Deere see if the shoe is worn away enough that it doesn't put the seed into the opened row properly.

If your area is prone to wheat streak mosaic please learn the proper time for planting in order to prevent it. If you plant too early it may get into your field and then spread to other fields. You really should check with your county agent to see if it can be a problem in your area.

If you raise any cattle early wheat pasture is excellent. However the crop must be well rooted before starting to pasture it. So, that may mean you will want to plant as early as possible but yet late enough to avoid the mosaic.

A lot more information than you asked for but others may have use for it.

[js2743]

i always just spread it with a fertilizer spreader, it broadcast it out and then disc it in.

[Bearfootfarm]

Grain drills are expensive around here, and I can't use one over 12 ft, so that limits my choices. What works almost as well is a pull type drop spreader..

First I disk it lightly, then spread the seed, and either disk or drag again. Ive gotten good results using a tine harrow and a long piece of telephone pole behind it, but the harrow broke a couple of days ago, so I used a cultivator with some small sweeps and it also did a good job of covering it.

Ive used it to plant lots of different things, but for small seed (smaller than Pearl Millet) you have to mix it with something such as sand or fertilizer or another type of seeds

A grain drill will save you some tilling, but it takes a lot of horsepower for the larger ones

[rambler]

New - well LandPride or the like might have something for 5-6 thousand bucks....

Used, here, the IHC & JD & MM units bring $150-400. These are the low-rubber, 1950-60 models. Most are wheel-lift (pull a rope to lower or raise it) tho many have been converted to hydraulic lift.

You can find 8', but 10 & 12' models are common.

I'd want 20 hp to pull it, and need enough traction (tractor heavy enough). Tho they really don't take all that much power.

--->Paul

[Lowdown]

Thank you everyone.

"Plow and harrow the ground as usual,broadcast the seed,quite heavy,then run a disc over them to cover or drag them in with something heavy,then cultipack and wait for rain.This works for us on small acreage."

This is how we've been doing it, still leaves some sitting on the top of the soil though.

Appreciate everyone's insights, thanks!

[DaleK]

We had an MF 33 that we used to use, it would be just about right for you. Sold it for $500, bought the new 15' Sunflower for $45,000 but it wouldn't work on your tractor at all.

[Old John]

When I was a kid on the farm, a couple of neighbors that I worked for
had a
1 row wheat drill, that ran between the corn rows
They pulled it with a little narrow homebuilt tractor.
The tractor had a cage around it, covered with 1/2 inch turkey wire, to keep the corn leaves off of you.
It was driven between the corn rows, in the field, before the corn was picked.
They would not let me drive it because I drove way to slow.
But it wasn't a pleasant job, anyway.
They planted a lot of wheat that way.......
Back in the day.