no-till drilling

[regenwether]

I'm going to try something different. I was told if you wait till mid Nov or later. Once the ground temp drops you can drill seed in the ground. Once it warms up in the spring the seed is suppose to pop out and get a little ahead of the cool season grasses before they bolt.

Anyone have any luck with this system? If so are there certian kinds of seed's that do better. I was thinking of puttting some grazing alfalfa, red clover and perhaps some birsfoot trefoil.

 

[Banjo]

i think it would be somewhat similiar to frost seeding. I think it would work as long as it didn't get warm enough to germinate then freeze.

 

[Bigfoot]

Something tells me it wouldn't work, although I have fed fescue hay in the fall and seen the seed come up in the spring.

 

[dun]

My concern would be that the seed would work itself too deep through the freeze thaw cycle. I would think that just broadcasting the seed in februarywould work better, or set the depth on the drill to just put the seed on the surface, i.e. not using the openers.

 

[fargus]

IF you were to do it in the fall, I would rather see it happen in September. Graze your pasture REALLY short, chase the cows out and no-till immediately. Try and get it to germinate in the fall, and as long as you get past 3ish trifoliates it will make it through the winter and have a good jump on your grass in the spring. All of our frost-seeding didn't show up until August this year; which is better than not showing up at all, but I would have rather had it in the early summer.

I'm with dun too, I would think you can save some wear on your drill by frost seeding in feb-march with a spinner spreader; and get the same results as no-tilling now.

 

[greybeard]

How well do those no till drills work in hard ground?

 

[dun]

How well do those no till drills work in hard ground?

Depends on the drillThe real heavy ones with disk openers works pretty well, where you run into problems isif some is real hard and some is real soft. You end up with some too shallow and some too deep.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

How well do those no till drills work in hard ground?

We drilled last fall with a 7 foot drill ourselves on some hard ground that had a very thin stand of fescue. Got a good growth around the edge of the field (where it is soft), but none down the middle. This fall, we hired someone to drill with a big John Deere 10 foot drill. Got a GREAT stand (drilled the same, annual rye and orchard). Made all the difference in the world the weight of the drill!

 

[regenwether]

I do have a spinner seedewr for my four-wheeler. Red clover and whitle clover works very well. Alfalfa I have not had very good luck. Soil to seed contact is important with alfalfa. Don't know about Birdfoot treefoil.

This is a drill I'm renting from the DNR. It had no-till coulters in the front.

 

[skyhightree1]

My concern would be that the seed would work itself too deep through the freeze thaw cycle. I would think that just broadcasting the seed in februarywould work better, or set the depth on the drill to just put the seed on the surface, i.e. not using the openers.

I agree. I say broadcast later. seed costs too much to do what if's

 

[regenwether]

Well I drilled the seed the other day. Perfect conditions. The drill was from the DNR. Traux was the brand name of the Drill. Very heavy duty Drill. The local Pheasents Forever group help purchase the drill. It is used a lot to put in food plots in 10 yr farms. The seed was planting @ 1/4 depth.