Seeder Recommendations?

Had good timber harvest this last year, looking to put it back into some equipment...one item on list was a seeder. Plant 15-20 acres a year of various food plot sizes (1/4 acre all the way up to 10 acre)

Recommendations for a seeder to do just about everything (besides corn, obviously would need a row planter for that)

Would be ideal if had to do minimum tillage to cut down on amount of time out there.

I plant 20 acres with a Great Plains 706NT. There’s a learning curve to no till drilling, but it’s worth doing it. It’s amazing how much time it saves. I pull it with a 75 hp JD.

I’m going to experiment with the small seed box next year, however. I don’t like how it puts the small seeds at the same depth as the large seed.

Working with a Kubota 46hp....i think GP makes a 6' NT probably would better match my hp. That would be my curiosity how the small seeds/brassicas do in these drills, as like you said you don't want to be burying these seeds.

I plant brassica, clover, and large seeds with my 606NT. Have had exceptional luck. Planted some great clover plots with it, and clover is as finicky as any seed with planting depth.

You can plant corn and soybeans with most of them just ducktape the holes for the spacing you want,I do that on my kasco,in fact i made dividers where I can plant corn in one row and beans in another you always want to allow for the lesser though so you don't overseed

buckdeer1 said:

You can plant corn and soybeans with most of them just ducktape the holes for the spacing you want,I do that on my kasco,in fact i made dividers where I can plant corn in one row and beans in another you always want to allow for the lesser though so you don't overseed

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Do you struggle with depth when you do that for corn? Where you get lot of stunted corn or corn with no cobs because the depth was inconsistent. I could see the row spacing easily fixed though

I regularly plant a mix of about 30% corn and 70% beans. It works great, and the corn makes great ears. I've also planted, using only three rows. Its easy to get the depth consistent, it's the spacing that can be off. I've had success with both methods.

I haven't had any issues,It usually is a bigger problem getting too deep

Ben - If a NT drill is above your budget or paygrade, consider a Firminator or Woods "One pass" planter. Very well built and handles just about any seed you can run through them. I use an old Plotmaster I bought in 2011 and it's still doing fine but my next will be a Firminator or Woods seeder. Have buddies with both and they love them. Seed boxes are ground driven rather than motor driven like my Plotmaster and the cultipacker is more up under the machine rather than free floating 3 ft behind it like the Plotmaster.

Once you have your fields in working order, they truly are one-pass planters. We spray the field with gly in late summer to kill everything including roots. Then 3 to 4 weeks later, simply run the planter through the field and plant right into the dead matter. The harrows open up a small furrow, seed box drops seeds into the furrows and the cultipacker covers. End result looks like the field has been drilled as growing rows follow the furrows created by the harrows. I really like them.

We plant about 10 to 12 acres now. If I were at 20 or more acres I might opt for a NT but don't think I have the paygrade to be able to work on em if something goes wrong.

Triple C said:

Ben - If a NT drill is above your budget or paygrade, consider a Firminator or Woods "One pass" planter. Very well built and handles just about any seed you can run through them. I use an old Plotmaster I bought in 2011 and it's still doing fine but my next will be a Firminator or Woods seeder. Have buddies with both and they love them. Seed boxes are ground driven rather than motor driven like my Plotmaster and the cultipacker is more up under the machine rather than free floating 3 ft behind it like the Plotmaster.

Once you have your fields in working order, they truly are one-pass planters. We spray the field with gly in late summer to kill everything including roots. Then 3 to 4 weeks later, simply run the planter through the field and plant right into the dead matter. The harrows open up a small furrow, seed box drops seeds into the furrows and the cultipacker covers. End result looks like the field has been drilled as growing rows follow the furrows created by the harrows. I really like them.

We plant about 10 to 12 acres now. If I were at 20 or more acres I might opt for a NT but don't think I have the paygrade to be able to work on em if something goes wrong.

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This is good info. I probably plant only 6/7 acres a year but in three different locations, and several small plots per location. If I could spray only or even spray, shred, and plant it would save me lots of time. I’m doing this by myself about half the time so that would be great. I’ve looked at those lower cost options.....a lot, but afraid to pull the trigger on something that might not work for me. I could use more info if you don’t mind.

Triple C said:

Ben - If a NT drill is above your budget or paygrade, consider a Firminator or Woods "One pass" planter. Very well built and handles just about any seed you can run through them. I use an old Plotmaster I bought in 2011 and it's still doing fine but my next will be a Firminator or Woods seeder. Have buddies with both and they love them. Seed boxes are ground driven rather than motor driven like my Plotmaster and the cultipacker is more up under the machine rather than free floating 3 ft behind it like the Plotmaster.

Once you have your fields in working order, they truly are one-pass planters. We spray the field with gly in late summer to kill everything including roots. Then 3 to 4 weeks later, simply run the planter through the field and plant right into the dead matter. The harrows open up a small furrow, seed box drops seeds into the furrows and the cultipacker covers. End result looks like the field has been drilled as growing rows follow the furrows created by the harrows. I really like them.

We plant about 10 to 12 acres now. If I were at 20 or more acres I might opt for a NT but don't think I have the paygrade to be able to work on em if something goes wrong.

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How big of a firminator would be needed for 10-12 acres? They make a bunch of widths. How big can you go and still use an ATV? We have some plots back in the woods where I can't get the tractor.

DRandall90 said:

How big of a firminator would be needed for 10-12 acres? They make a bunch of widths. How big can you go and still use an ATV? We have some plots back in the woods where I can't get the tractor.

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Nevermind, I see they have an ATV only version. Seems small for doing big plots, but I really don't want to buy 2 of them...

cutman said:

I plant 20 acres with a Great Plains 706NT. There’s a learning curve to no till drilling, but it’s worth doing it. It’s amazing how much time it saves. I pull it with a 75 hp JD.

I’m going to experiment with the small seed box next year, however. I don’t like how it puts the small seeds at the same depth as the large seed.

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I have the small seed box on my GP1006 and it dribbles the smaller seeds on top of the ground right behind the double disc openers that bury the larger seeds, right in front of the compaction wheel. I get close to 100% germination on both sizes of seeds when planted in one pass.

Ben Laska said:

Had good timber harvest this last year, looking to put it back into some equipment...one item on list was a seeder. Plant 15-20 acres a year of various food plot sizes (1/4 acre all the way up to 10 acre)

Recommendations for a seeder to do just about everything (besides corn, obviously would need a row planter for that)

Would be ideal if had to do minimum tillage to cut down on amount of time out there.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear about your good timber harvest. I would advise getting a good used AG notill drill rather than a new foodplolt drill if the price is comparable. A foodplot drill will struggle with notill if the going gets tough, while a notill drill will walk away with it. Here I'm planting oats, chicory, and ladino clover with one pass in heavy corn stubble in the middle of march, this grew into beautiful clover & chicory field by the following fall.

I have a woods seeder with an 84" working width. Pic above is one pass into sprayed, standing, Johnson grass. Plants regular seed (wheat) and small seed (clover) at the same time - at different planting depths from two different seed boxes. I plant an acre every 20 minutes. Slightly used (one yr old) - $6000. It goes over rocks, logs -etc. County wont rent me a no-till due to my rough ground. Never had a problem with my woods seeder in three year of planting 60 acres per year.

So....to be clear, you were planting in the corn with a Great Plains drill, but through the Johnson grass with a Woods seeder. Why not use the drill in both ? Pics of the Woods seeder please. I’m really interested in something that I can plant different seeds with while not having to disc. I mostly plant cereal grains in the fall, sometimes with MRC or AWP, and IC peas in the spring. If I could plant peas through the wheat, either by mowing or spraying the wheat, and planting through the peas at the end of their life, that would be great. This would save time and preserve the integrity of the soil. All my plots are smooth, root and rock free, and mostly sandy soils. I don’t have $10K to spend on a drill either.

My part of the world is almost ag-free, pine timber, pasture, and hay meadows dominate here, so there’s no big used implement market, no farm auctions, etc. in my area. Anything I buy would be on-line in the drill or seeder category and I’m woefully ignorant of all things no-till except for the application. Educate me as much as you can without being able to actually see my plots. I appreciate any and all input.

Drycreek said:

So....to be clear, you were planting in the corn with a Great Plains drill, but through the Johnson grass with a Woods seeder. Why not use the drill in both ? Pics of the Woods seeder please. I’m really interested in something that I can plant different seeds with while not having to disc. I mostly plant cereal grains in the fall, sometimes with MRC or AWP, and IC peas in the spring. If I could plant peas through the wheat, either by mowing or spraying the wheat, and planting through the peas at the end of their life, that would be great. This would save time and preserve the integrity of the soil. All my plots are smooth, root and rock free, and mostly sandy soils. I don’t have $10K to spend on a drill either.

My part of the world is almost ag-free, pine timber, pasture, and hay meadows dominate here, so there’s no big used implement market, no farm auctions, etc. in my area. Anything I buy would be on-line in the drill or seeder category and I’m woefully ignorant of all things no-till except for the application. Educate me as much as you can without being able to actually see my plots. I appreciate any and all input.

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no - I did not plant corn - I have hogs. I dont have a drill - just the woods seeder. I have planted sunflowers once by taping all but three holes shut - but was not impressed. Most of the time, I plant wheat out of the large seed box and durana clover out of the small seed box. Most of my deer plots now are established durana. I am probably only a couple hundred miles from you - just north of Texarkana. Our durana usually just about dies out in late summer. Around first of October, I pull the woods seeder through the clover plots, set up fairly high so it doesnt disk up the clover but disturbs the ground enough to allow for successful wheat planting. The wheat provides a quick green while the clover is recovering from the dry hot summers. I will also usually plant a couple lbs per acre of clover - just to freshen the plots. If it is new ground or very weedy, I like to spray to kill the vegetation before planting. The picture above was a browntop millet field that grew up in johnson grass. That was previous year johnson grass I was planting into. I would say in general, I am only disturbing the top two or three inches of soil on my ground - with one pass. If starting a new plot, I might go over the ground twice and plant the second time over. I have planted wheat, rye, brassicas, soybeans, peas, milo, millets, and clovers that all did well. I will send some pics of the seeder in a bit

84” working width woods seeder. Disk in front can be set to completely disk ground or just open seed furrows

Spiked roller is behind disk and is actually the drive wheel. Seeds falls from the seed cups and hits the spiked roller. The slower you go, the narrow and straighter the lines of planted seed - more like a drill. Personally, I dont care for seed in rows six or seven inches apart like a drill. I plant at about 4mph and it tends to spread the seed more evenly across the ground. The spiked roller also acts to break up clods and compress soil over seeds planted from large seed box

Small seed falls through tubes in front of cultipacker and are pressed into ground surface

Swamp, I completely missed the poster changed from MM to you, thus I thought you had a drill. My apologies.

I’ve seen a lot of those seeders for around the $5K price on the tractor sites but I just never knew if they would do what I need to do. Sounds like it might take the place of a no-till in my soils. My soils are normally fairly easy to penetrate unless it’s baked from heat in early September, then even that sand can get pretty hard. I’m gonna have to do a little more head scratching on this. Thanks for the clarification and the pics.