I am re seeding my existing pastures. The drought the last 2 years have taken it;s toll. I planted about 15 acres in Rancho Frio and it is already 2 feet tall in less than a month. There have been plenty of rain on it and warm temps. I am broadcasting into existing pasture and was going to seed at 5lbs to the acre. I have a 400lb seeder that is pto dirven. I can't set the gate low enough for the small seed to come out faster than I want it to. I have heard to mix with fertilizer or sand. At what rate do you mix. I have already put out fertilizer on my pasture but I have never used sand as a filler. Any suggestions on what my options are and what you have had sucess with.
seeding bermuda seed ?
- Thread starter plbcattle
- Start date
novatech
Well-known member
Use a dry sandblasting sand. That type of sand is graded by size, so you can get it about the same as the seed. You will have to do a test run to see how much you are putting out. The wider the slot the more sand. Do not put a lot of seed mix in at one time as the seed and sand can seperate due to the vibration of the hopper. I have seen people mix in a slight amount of sugar water to get the seed to stick to the sand.
Not sure about the ratio, but the guys that put mine out last year used comb of granular lime/fertilizer. If you didn't need the fertilizer you could just use the lime - probably not much more expensive than sand...
I used the Rancho Frio also. It was a new pasture, had pines cut off it about 7 years ago. It came up well and survived a drought and invasion of Goat weed. The early cold snap has really slowed it down this year. It was coming out great, then after the freeze, looked like somebody had shot it with Roundup.....
I used the Rancho Frio also. It was a new pasture, had pines cut off it about 7 years ago. It came up well and survived a drought and invasion of Goat weed. The early cold snap has really slowed it down this year. It was coming out great, then after the freeze, looked like somebody had shot it with Roundup.....
Texas Gal
Well-known member
Here's the information I got from the Noble Foundation in Oklahoma for overseeding common bermuda into grazed out winter pasture:
Mix the seed with DRY sand at a rate of five parts sand to one part seed and broadcast with the spreader open 1/16" to 1/8".
Mix the seed with DRY sand at a rate of five parts sand to one part seed and broadcast with the spreader open 1/16" to 1/8".
dcara
Well-known member
I did a 6 ac pasture with Sungrazer Plus seed in April. But I had already put out my fertilizer. So I sat on the tailgate of the truck with a hand crank grass seed broadcaster (cranking at a predetermined rate) while the wife drove along at a predetermined speed. Took about an hour to do 6 acers.
I talked to several ag guys at the local co-ops. after much discussion, sand,fertilizer, and other fillers, we decided on lime. It is perfect in size, land always needs lime and it's cheap. I seeded 30 acres. 5 lbs of grass seed/50 lbs of lime to the acre. It worked great. My spreader holds 550 lbs and it worked like a char, The lime cost me $115. fertilizer would have been 3 times that. Sand would have even cost more and it doesn't benifit the soil at all.
VZCR
Well-known member
I used a broadcast spreader to put out "Texas Tough" Bermuda seed about a month ago. I got a 50 lb. bag of cottonseed meal from the local feed store and mixed 20 lbs. seed in the hopper. It worked very well. $7.00 / 50 lb. The meal is a little moist and sticky so the seed sticks to the meal grains. Got grass comming up thick out there now. :D
