No till drills
- Thread starter Lucky
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
mickroos65
Well-known member
Hired a guy to seed CRP ground he had a Kasco drill. It did a nice job. Jd 750 works well for soybeans.
Silver
Well-known member
Are you planning on seeding directly into sod or no tilling into stubble?
CalumetFarms
Well-known member
I used to have a JD 1530 drill it did fine overall. Got some planting done and I ended up selling it, mostly cause it was 20 ft with no fold. There's better out there. Great Plains and pasture pleaser are supposed to be real good.
I guess my advice would be don't go super old or super big.
Pnw Farmer
Well-known member
That's a pretty broad question, we've ran a JD 750 for about 18 years now. True no till, deep banders running fertilizer on the first gang, seed on 7.5" spacing on the 2nd and 3rd gang. We seed our fall wheat into garb or pea ground. Seeded barley this spring but it was stubble that had a vertical tillage pass made last fall. I think it's 2nd to none in regards to even crop emergence but we're always fighting loose hubs, greasing every 125 or so acres, we've got abrasive soils around here so blades and boots wear somewhat quickly, won't close in the spring, doesn't seed garbanzo beans, boots plug if you tail or sweep much on corners in the spring. Hard ground and dull blades are a bad combo as they're spring over hydraulic down-pressure so you can only load the springs so much and your even emergence goes downhill quickly. I pulled the closing wheels off because I'd lose a couple bearings a day in them, replaced with a hydraulically raised 5 bar flex harrow. Last spring we did a 200 acre test plot having a neighbor come in and custom seed peas directly into 105 BPA wheat residue. Drill was a Case 400 shank drill, 10" space with 3.5" paired rows. Flowed residue excellent, couldn't get a harrow across it afterwards though that spread residue evenly. A lot of the bigger farmers around here have gone to the Horsch Cougar shank drills, 2 rank with a lead coulter for sizing residue to flow through, nice drills but they're out of our price range by a couple hundred thousand. Agpro is well known in the area, they're a local manufacturer out of Lewiston, ID. Supposedly the Cross Slot drills will seed through anything but they're known to be maintenance headaches and pull like lead sleds. If you go in depth about what the conditions you'll be working in, then a guy can give a more in depth answer that is tailored to help you.
Otha
Well-known member
For seeding into sod the best I've been able to rent or hire around here was a JD 750 or 1590 i think it was. Similar drills just a newer model. They seem to be able to cut through anything reasonable. I don't have but a few hundred acres experience but I did learn any of the hoe or shank style no till drills won't work for planting into a sod grass like coastal. The vining grass and roots get caught and it makes for a rough field. The big cutting disk on the JD cut right through it except for that past fall we had grazed down some grass that would have made 3+ ton of hay. Left the cows till they started acting hungry and there was still too much reside from the grass stalks to get a good stand. It was also very dry.
Lucky
Well-known member
I'd like to be able to no till winter grazing crops like oats and rye for yearlings and no till Bermuda grass in a few fields. The ones I've been looking at are the Great Plains 1006NT and 3P1006NT. Also found a Land Pride 3P1006NT. The Land Pride looks identical to Great Plains. I'd like to find a nice used one but really don't know how many acres they can plant before becoming troublesome. I've got a 100hp four whell drive tractor and not sure if I should go 8' or 10' too. There are a few people that rent them around here but timing always seems to be an issue for me. The only preplanting tillage I'd like to do is running a Lawson aerator before planting. I've found a few of the 3 point models with less than 400 acres on them in the $18-20k range.
Last edited:
Pnw Farmer
Well-known member
If your ground is pretty mellow then one of those drills would probably work, if it's concrete then they tend to be too light and will ride out on the disks. We had a bigger brother to that, a 2n3010 for our spring legumes. Weighted on the outside of the wings, sometimes in a firm spot and the drill was almost empty they'd ride out. It's the same lead coulter design, different seed opener set up though. Our seed openers had a parallel linkage design with poly and steel bushings, I believe it had over 5000 acres when I replaced all those. Check for any broken seed cups, I never dealt with that but I think you have to pull the entire shaft to work on one. Drive chains use plastic idler sprockets so those don't last long. Seed flutes were never an issue, the tabs that hold your feed cup bottom in place would get brittle over time, replace every 5-6 years. They're cheap though, 3 or 4 bucks I think at the last. Check the vertical straps the lead coulters are mounted on, if a bunch of them are bent back then you'll probably break a few. The springs are being ran too tight if they're bent back. Side to side play on the openers will tell you how worn out the opener bushings are. Near new you shouldn't get over 1/4" to 3/8" play over all side to side. They adjust depth easily, I never lost a press wheel bearing either. Unhook the seed tubes at the end of every season, they tend to stretch and will kink over and plug if left tight all year. Drill was a rental before we got it so that's an estimation on acres. I wouldn't call it troublesome, it's like anything mechanical, eventually you've got to replace parts. I never thought ours was hard to work on, grease every 200 acres. If your fields are pretty irregular in shape then I'd recommend the pull behind, the 3pt turning all the time will work anything that pivots more since it'll be trying to shear sideways vs tracking true behind your tractor, side shear is harder on everything and wears things prematurely. We seeded everything from CRP to garbanzos, it was our primary spring drill. If you're not going to be seeding through ponds and pure mud I do know JD makes a 10 ft 750 that would seed those crops as well. One thing we consider when looking at equipment is parts availability. If you've got a GP dealer 5 miles up the road and a Deere dealer 70 miles out, you'll either have to get your own parts inventory or lose seat time if you go JD.
Lucky
Well-known member
I've also been looking at some of the No till Simple Seeders. Great Plains makes a NTS 2609 that looks nice and is 1/2 the price of a drill. It'd be a 1/2 the price fence ornament if it didn't work though. I'm in some really hard black land soil.
SmokinM
Well-known member
I have a Great Plains 3p605NT that I do a ton of custom seeding with. It has been a great drill. Grass and annuals like you are talking about it does good. Most people plant too deep anyway. The few time I have done beans with it I didnt get great results not sure why but bear in mind they were small food plot patches not always prepped and managed the best. Planting bermuda with one your best bet is to take the tubes loose and just let it fall.
Mine has about 5k acres on it and I have done coulters once and needs new press wheel bearings now. Also had to replace all the drive system sprockets and chains. Great Plains and Land Pride are the same machine. Weight is the big issue on them and in 3pt style I would think bigger than 8' would be tough to handle. The nice thing on these drills is parts are the same on all of them and easy to find. If your a grain farmer doing 20k acres a year they aren't the drill you want but for overseeding pastures they do well.
Mine has about 5k acres on it and I have done coulters once and needs new press wheel bearings now. Also had to replace all the drive system sprockets and chains. Great Plains and Land Pride are the same machine. Weight is the big issue on them and in 3pt style I would think bigger than 8' would be tough to handle. The nice thing on these drills is parts are the same on all of them and easy to find. If your a grain farmer doing 20k acres a year they aren't the drill you want but for overseeding pastures they do well.
BFE
Well-known member
Both GP and LP are manufactured by the same company in Salina Ks. Now are owned by Kubota.
mickroos65
Well-known member
I also like the looks of the NTS2609. Will be doing more research before pulling the trigger. Good information in this thread.
SmokinM
Well-known member
Those NTS2609 seeders like you show would work good for the bermuda and to try and interseed small seed grasses like orchard and bluegrass in sandy soil. I have not been overly impressed with their results in true sod planting especially when you get into things like oats, wheat etc.
Pnw Farmer
Well-known member
I'll admit I'm not familiar with the NTS series of seeders but I took a look at them on Tractorhouse and I would be hard-pressed to say it'll seed cereals properly. From what I can tell about their design you're basically banking on luck for the seed to hit the hole punched by the lead roller. With the true opener on the 1006 you can control your depth from 1/2" to 4" in I believe around 1/4" increments. Should you want to throw some forage peas in deep you have that option. You could check with your local dealer and see if they'd be willing to bring each model out to you and let you demo each side by side, that'd be the best test you could do.
Silver
Well-known member
I am too cheap at this point for a no till drill, although I'd sure like one. Inspired by @Rydero I bought 3/4" Atom Jet openers for my hoe drill. Last fall I sprayed out the hay ground I want rejuvenated and worked it up except for about 40 acres to experiment with. I am seeding oats directly into the sod now, and it seems to be getting the job done. We'll see if / how it grows.
1982vett
Well-known member
These are from 2009. I no tilled 35# of oats into some short overgrazed bermuda in in the fall of 2008. Not sure I really got a lot of grazing from it (weather and all, dry and didn't get good germination/survival) but it made really good hay.
![049[1].jpg](https://data.www.cattletoday.com/attachments/12/12937-931709e60f2256a70c3717876aecac12.jpg "049[1].jpg")
![048[1].jpg](https://data.www.cattletoday.com/attachments/12/12938-37e12154d403d1825fc3196b737673cc.jpg "048[1].jpg")
I used a Tye Pasture Pleaser. I did it again several years ago but again the weather was an issue. Instead of being to dry, it rained mostly daily and I lost it to army worms.
Lucky
Well-known member
Very nice. I'dlove to have some grazing like that for the yearlings. A rep from Great Plains is supposedto call me and see if a No till drill or No till seeder will work best for me. Hopefully I can get somethinggoing by this fall....thanks for the pics.
