Seed/grain drills on established pasture

[Awnry Abe]

I could use a primer on the use of seed/grain drills on existing, non-tilled pasture. --the basic desire is to take scrubby, less-than-optimal-for-grazing, and replant it with a cocktail of grasses, legumes, and root crop for grazing. I am starting with pastures that are too good to kill/till and reseed, but which still do not meet my expectations. My "best" pastures, if you would call them at, are 100% fescue heavy. My worst are graze-able weed/junk grass patches with shining spots of optimism. (I do have 7 acres of eastern gamma, which is pretty cool to have)

In the past I have done both broadcast overseeding and no-drill using a seeder rented from the USDA. I have found that broadcasting grass seed is not money well spent, but no-till drills work great. On the other hand, I have had very good success with broadcasting clover and turnips.

I am contemplating purchasing a used drill. But I am slightly confused as to the useful planting/ground conditions required by the various types. No-till I understand. I used one and saw it in action. If I could find one, I wouldn't post this thread. The other types leave me wondering what trouble I would be getting into by trying to use them to plant grass & such into grass.

Thanks for all the input.

[farminghandyman]

I would think a standard dill will do you little good unless one tilled the ground, a double disk opener would be best most likely,

if you wanting to plant grass, many times it takes a special drill so it will feed,

I have had some luck with a drop spreader, for the seed and pulling a old single tree disk behind it, or spike harrow behind it, so it can some what get mixed in the soil,

if you have to use a regular grain drill mixing some thing like millet (bird seed) or oats, I would guess on could use clean dry sand even. with the grass seed and use it for a carrier to keep the grass seed from fluffing up and bunching and bridging over the feed cups,

the little hard seed will not need any thing special but the fuzzy or fluffy seeds will,

some conversation districts rent grass drills and or will have a list of contractors who one can hire, NRCS office,

[ksfarmer]

Farminghandyman has the right info. A regular grain drill won't work unless you do something to stir some soil over the seed. Grass seed needs an agitator to keep the seed falling into the drop tubes. However, Mixing seeds gives poor results because the heavier hard seeds will shake out leaving the fluffy light grass seed on top .

[Awnry Abe]

Is the purpose of secondary seed bins so that lighter and heavier seeds can be applied in the same pass? On the unit I rented from the NRCS, it had what they called a 'minor' bin. It was really too minor to put any substantially sized seed, though. The turnips or clover probably would have worked well with it. But I am not sure if this design is consistent across seeders. I would think they could come up with a good non-mono crop feeder.

[ksfarmer]

Originally Posted by Awnry Abe

Is the purpose of secondary seed bins so that lighter and heavier seeds can be applied in the same pass? On the unit I rented from the NRCS, it had what they called a 'minor' bin. It was really too minor to put any substantially sized seed, though. The turnips or clover probably would have worked well with it. But I am not sure if this design is consistent across seeders. I would think they could come up with a good non-mono crop feeder.

I don't know about the one you used, but, some drills or seeders will have a second bin and drop tubes for applying fertilizer as you seed.

[jwal10]

Many older drills had "grass seed boxes" and the drop tubes didn't even go into the disk openers. They just dropped the seed behind the openers and the drag chains or a flex harrow covered the seed. This let you seed the nurse crop (oats) through the regular seedbox deeper and let the "grass seed" be shallower. If you planted a mix of seeds like clover or vetch it did not settle out as bad in these small boxes. These boxes were small but the volume planted per acre was small too. I used to seed winter wheat and red clover this way. Combine the wheat and have the clover under it for a rotation crop for the next 2 years. Double cropped for silage and a seed crop in one year, 3 years crops in one pass. I have reseeded clover or lotus into grass fields after burn down, early in the spring when the ground is wet with a ATV and an 8' IHC steel wheeled grain drill and got a good crop. Moisture is the key to getting the seed deep enough to get a good crop....James

[FarmboyBill]

James, all the drills I ever saw had the grass box in front of the main seed box, and some of that with the fert box behind the main grain box. Ive seed drills that had small tubes for the small seed box, and some without.

[FarmboyBill]

Mine and uncle Milts were both single seed boxes. I never saw him use his. It was a small horse drawn one. Mines longer 14 hole I think. I can sow many small seed in my main seed box, but it sows it heavy.

[idigbeets]

You want a stubble drill, Tye, Buffalo, JD all make one. Call around and see who can rent them out to you.

[haypoint]

Depends on soil type and how much sod you have. Grass seeds don't need buried like grains do. A grain drill with small grass seed box will drop seed in even amounts, right behind where the discs disturbed the soil.
Planting desirable grasses, clovers, etc. into a field of good plants and weeds sounds like a good way to improve the pasture. But, what generally happens is that the pasture animals eat the good plants and the weeds grow and cast thousands of seeds. The desirable plants cannot compete against grazing pressure and repeated weed plantings.
If your weeds are mostly broadleaf, you could plant grasses only and spray 2,4D. That kills the broadleaf and is safe for grasses. After a few years of weed seeds sprouting and sprays of 2,4D, you may have the weeds under control and then you could plant legumes and turnips.
Saving the cost of plowing and fitting the field has consequences. Getting desirable plants to overtake weeds is difficult.
Planting grass seed in an established field in light soil can easily be done with a grain drill.