|
|
Illinois | Looking for a 10 or 12 foot drill primarily to seed small patches of alfalfa. Maybe use it also for oats or mixing alfalfa and grass seed. Any suggestions for brand or model # of drill that covers the seed good. Neighbors have a older drill with chains to cover the seed but does an awful job. |
|
| |
|
NW Wisconsin | Brillion Surestand Period. NOTHING else comes close |
|
| |
|
Wisconsin | Yes, but any drill can do close to a brillion if you cultipack the soil before the grain drill, take the tubes off and drop the seed on the surface, then cultipack it again, even better cultipack twice after seeding
Edited by junk fun 3/22/2024 15:10
|
|
| |
|
Thumb of Michigan | junk fun - 3/22/2024 15:09
Yes, but any drill can do close to a brillion if you cultipack the soil before the grain drill, take the tubes off and drop the seed on the surface, then cultipack it again, even better cultipack twice after seeding
+1, poor man's Brillion, but works. |
|
| |
|
West Central IA | I use an old van brunt drill and pull a western land roller behind it and usually get excellent stands of alfalfa. I doubt you could get a cheaper set up than what I run. I do not no-till alfalfa. Just as I do not no-till crop into alfalfa. At some point you need to fill the coyote, fox, badger and gopher holes. |
|
| |
|
Ft. Ripley MN | junk fun - 3/22/2024 15:09
Yes, but any drill can do close to a brillion if you cultipack the soil before the grain drill, take the tubes off and drop the seed on the surface, then cultipack it again, even better cultipack twice after seeding
We tried that with some grass and clover seed… it worked but not what I would try with alfalfa.
I know there are plenty of guys that seed alfalfa with drills but for us that’s not gonna be an option. All the coops rent a brillion seeder… alfalfa is expensive to seed.. so its better to do it right the first time with a brillion. All small grains go through the drill. We are in the land of rocks so a pass before and after seeding with a land roller is highly recommended |
|
| |
|
North Central OH | About any drill should work but a brillion is probably the Cadillac. Never used a brillion but our 5100 IH works fine with a half rate drive. |
|
| |
|
| Alfalfa seed should only be crushed in. A brillon or Land Pride is money well spent. Have a large list of people wanting to rent mine after seeing the job it does. |
|
| |
|
Illinois | What kind do you have the brillion or land pride? Do they both cover the seed good? |
|
| |
|
| Never had a problem with a nice stand using my John Deere drill.
Edited by FuRuss 3/22/2024 17:57
 (IMG_0691 (full).jpeg)
Attachments
----------------
 IMG_0691 (full).jpeg (168KB - 37 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
West central Ohio | IH 6200 press drill does a good job for us |
|
| |
|
| I planted my alfalfa last year with a Massy Ferguson 33 drill I borrowed off a friend and pulled with a WD.
Fall chiseled, then hit with a finisher, harrowgator drug over it, drilled, then I pulled my Brillion cultimulcher over it. Got a pretty good stand
 (IMG_20230416_124742513 (full).jpg)
 (IMG_20230416_125928053 (full).jpg)
 (IMG_20230415_144708287 (full).jpg)
 (IMG_20230415_154701082 (full).jpg)
Attachments
----------------
IMG_20230416_124742513 (full).jpg (133KB - 59 downloads)
IMG_20230416_125928053 (full).jpg (70KB - 70 downloads)
IMG_20230415_144708287 (full).jpg (168KB - 61 downloads)
IMG_20230415_154701082 (full).jpg (174KB - 67 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
Central Illinois | We had a 750 no-till drill with the small seed boxes. Light tillage pass first and then come with the drill. The openers set to the shallowest depth. The tubes from the grass seed boxes positioned to drop on top of the soil. The down pressure on the gauge wheels firmed the soil followed by a lite coil tine harrow.
Now I disk the field in the fall to level the soil and reduce stubble. Then harrow in the spring prior to the JD B drill pulling a chain behind the drill. |
|
| |
|
Omaha, NE | Isnt something a 50 or60 year old drill is just as good as the new stuff for a hood stand tho old timers knew how to make it last !!!! |
|
| |
|
just a tish NE of central ND | My limited experiences of 60 years.... Nice firm but not hard seedbed so the seed isn't totally buried 3 inches deep. Alfalfa like a fairly shallow seed depth but needs moisture too and can be forgiving for seed depth to a point......Any drill will get the seed into the soil then but not buried if the bed is nice and moist and firm. Then firm the seedbed again after its seeded. Now adjusting the seeding rate is more of an issue for me.
It seems alfalfa can push/emerge/through a quite hard layer of soils above the seed if it's not buried too deep.
I have seeded alfalfa with a concord air drill and twin row Dutch openers with a cover crop. |
|
| |
|
Wyoming | I tried a Brillion when we first started. It was a failure in our Nevada soils - if the soil had enough moisture to keep the seed from blowing out, it would stick to the rollers on the Brillion and make a big, patchy mess out of the field. Your mid-west soils might act very differently. In the end, a 12' Great Plains no-till drill did the best job at alfalfa, small grains, and grass. |
|
| |
|
| Not going to argue against a Brillion for Alfalfa, but any drill with a grass seed box will work, best if it drops the grass seed behind the openers, I use drag chains and pull a cultipacker right behind, works well. Important that the PH be upper 6 to 7 range. |
|
| |
|
Ludington/Manistee MI area | Hi low - 3/22/2024 20:16
Isnt something a 50 or60 year old drill is just as good as the new stuff for a hood stand tho old timers knew how to make it last !!!!
I’d like to see stand counts to prove an old jalopy do as good as Brillion. |
|
| |
|
Wisconsin | I thought he could have been talking about a 50-60 year old brillion vs something newer? but hard to tell from the thread.
Edited by junk fun 3/23/2024 09:22
|
|
| |
|
NEWI | Used to use our JD fbb 10’ drill, then moved to a 30’ great plains, and now use a homemade 15’ air roller/seeder.
Have had the best stands with the roller overall.
Should also mention with the great plains drill and the roller we plant into standing triticale or winter rye, in early spring.
Edited by FarmerboyRoy 3/23/2024 13:50
 (C770D8B1-2203-476D-AD45-FC4FE991F4FA (full).jpeg)
 (0570C5B6-E780-44AD-B370-3ECB4FC66783 (full).jpeg)
 (A90E68B2-0AE5-485E-9E40-DFAA18E28D3B (full).jpeg)
 (03D8E69B-7A03-422A-985F-3C2E42AFA387 (full).jpeg)
 (894274C7-3C50-43D5-8599-EA0C8B93C0FD (full).jpeg)
Attachments
----------------
C770D8B1-2203-476D-AD45-FC4FE991F4FA (full).jpeg (200KB - 46 downloads)
0570C5B6-E780-44AD-B370-3ECB4FC66783 (full).jpeg (128KB - 39 downloads)
A90E68B2-0AE5-485E-9E40-DFAA18E28D3B (full).jpeg (143KB - 39 downloads)
03D8E69B-7A03-422A-985F-3C2E42AFA387 (full).jpeg (196KB - 39 downloads)
894274C7-3C50-43D5-8599-EA0C8B93C0FD (full).jpeg (196KB - 33 downloads)
|
|
| |
Drill for seeding alfalfa
