Budget Native Grass Drill

[ValleyView]

I am on the hunt for a used drill that can plant 15-20 acres of native perennials and also possibly some annuals being rye, oats, SgSdn and wheat behind an older Massey-Ferguson 240 tractor.

I have been renting a hitch pin pull hydraulic Great Plains 606NT from the NRCS office at $100 per day and $10 per acre which is proving to be somewhat cost prohibitive. I had a set of rear remotes installed last spring so it does not necessarily have to be a 3pt mount.

Was curious what you folks have had decent luck with planting natives and annuals with.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[wbvs58]

It probably means nothing to you there but I have an old Connor Shea 14 tyne planter at 6" spacings yes 6" as we didn't have metric when it was built. The tynes have a coil spring on them so they kick up easy when they hit an immovable object and no damage. It has a small seed box as well which I use for grass seeds. The small seed box has separate tubes that drop the seed on the surface of the broken ground. I use it for what you described, I mostly just spray out the ground and sow winter cereals such as oats and rye and then will direct drill rye into paddocks without spraying out, all, through the main seed box with the tubes in behind the tynes and then I will do one paddock a year with grass seed through the small seed box.

Ken