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Junior Member
 
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Last Login: 5/11/2012 2:10:25 PM
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| How does a seed drill work? I've never seen one. We have a lot of drying winds; just broadcasting grass seed is a no go. I want to try Dry Land Pasture Mix on about 5 acres to start, see how it goes.
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Advanced Member
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Last Login: 5/18/2012 7:15:44 AM
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| We have one that is either 2nd or 3rd hand to us. It's made by John Deere. It is phneomic (sp?) and can only be pulled by our biggest tractor. It has a compartment for rye (what we normaly plant) or bigger seed and a different compartment to put your clover in or smaller seed. We put in about 400 #'s of rye in the main compartment. There is a table under the cover that tells you what ratio to set your drill for the type of seed vs your field acreage. There is no need for turning your soil over before use. We like to hare over the manure. The biggest problem it making sure your drill isn't bigger then your gates. When you unlock your drill, you can lower it and it starts the planting process. But watch your seed depth because you may plant your seed too deep and it want come up. According to your set ration the seed will go down the tube and be planted. There is a disk that opens the ground which allows the seed to fall in place and then there is a compacting disk that puts the earth back. There is normal maintance like greasing and taken the air hose to push out any small amounts of seed left over before you store until next season. Watch you fingers with that lid, you could lose or brake a few because that John Deere drill is solid metal. Watch your step, too. There is a platform that you stand on to dump your seeds and it's small. Hope this is a start
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Average Member
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Last Login: 5/3/2012 6:26:10 PM
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We have one also don't know brand or how old it is, but I do know that when we needed to plant alfalfa, we had to rent the one from the county soil conservation district. We use ours for oats and wheat, I can't remember if we used it for the "native" grasses or not. (dry land grasses)..we may have had to rent the same one from the county. ( I think it has something to do with the size of seed or the planting method)
Livin to learn
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Average Member
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Last Login: 5/3/2012 6:26:10 PM
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| A little more information; There is just a drill and there is a no till drill. The no till drill basically drills up the dirt before planting the seeds and then covers them up, it has appendages that go infront of the planting parts and works up the ground and you don't have to pretill the ground. The drill, just basically plants, so you have to pre work the ground before using it. (we use a vibra shank-although this year we are borrowing a disc- and then use the drill) There are "seed" drills for the larger seeds, and there are "grass seed" drills that do the smaller seeds and there are ones which do both, depending on which hopper you put the seeds in. Our drill is a seed drill, so will do oats, corn and wheat. We rented the soil conservation districts to plant our alfalfa and our native grasses. We will plant approx 100 acres.
Livin to learn
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Starting Member
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Last Login: 10/31/2011 2:51:07 AM
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You could easily argue that the seed drill is why the industrial revolution happened. It made planting and growing food much more productive and faster meaningless labour. These people then moved to the city and worked in the factories and mines. Also because more and more food was being grown, it meant it was more abundant and people could get it easier. This and advancements is medicine lead to a population growth which fuelled the industrial revolution. But I wanted to look at the seed drill more closely to really see what this. What a Seed Drill does is position seeds evenly and carefully as to not be wasteful. Before people would distribute the seeds by hand, this was slow and inefficient. The first seed drill ever (although it was a single tube) dates back all the way to 1500 B.C in the Sumerian civilization. The first European seed drill to be invented was in 1566 made by a man named Camillo Torello.Although our textbook says that Jethro Tull ( a sixties ban as well, or so I am told *cough* Mr.Fisher*cough*) was the inventor of the drill, he only refined it, making it even more efficient. Now in the 21st century seed drills are much more complicated (giant high tech, gas powered machines) but the idea is the same. A hole is dug and seed is planted and repeat. Yay Food!
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Starting Member
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Last Login: 5/7/2012 4:49:51 AM
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Actually with the grass seed most older drills are not much better than broadcasting.
There are disc openers for the grain seed that is true but you will find that on most drill the grass seed goes down a tube that comes out behind the openers and there will be chains that bounce around to cover the grass seed.
Then you hit it with a packer to press it tight with the soil.
The packing step is critical to a good stand. When broadcasting in small patches we drag a piece of plywood with weights on it behind the lawn tractor. Out in the field we have a 12 foot cultipacker to do the job.
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