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Western Wis. | Was talking with a alfalfa guru today about how the planting equipment for alfalfa hasn't changed in 30 some years, wanted to here from the guys out there what your choice is.
One concept that this gentleman was looking at is the placement and depth control of alfalfa seed, looking at 3/4" to 1" depth and a 6" row spacing 15-20 lbs to the acre plant rate
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North End I-15 | 1940's IHC double disk 6" space end wheel drill with grass boxes . seed 5lbs PLS
Edited by Ernie 9/5/2013 18:51
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Durand, WI | JD 750 all-till drill, usually seed 12-14 pounds / acre and 1.5 inches deep |
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North Liberty and South Bend, Indiana | Brillion seeder. |
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Embarrass WI | I use a JD 1560 drill. Sold my Brillion seeder, some of the ground I farm is too sandy and the loose sand would pile up in front of it.
Te 3/4 to 1" depth is different than I have always been told. I have heard 1/2" to 5/8" and planting 1" was too deep. If an inch works, I would go that route but I've always been hesitant to go too deep.
I plant pure alfalfa about 16 lbs/A. The last few years I have been putting grass with it. |
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Central WI | Gandy orbit air for us |
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| Brillion |
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North Central Iowa | Floater with seed mixed in 40 gallons per acre of liquid suspension fertilizer. Follow with a cultipacker. We seeded hundreds of acres a year on a custom basis in the early nineties. By far the most consistent stands. Today I suppose the bean rollers would make it a lot easier. The biggest problem back then was getting a guy to go slow enough to not totally destroy the old cultipacker. When they started bouncing they didn't last long. |
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SE MN | We were going to seed 90 acres this fall but it got to dry and to late but we were going to use a brillion my dad picked up at auction pretty cheap. Before he got that bought we were going to put it down with 0-0-60 and 18-46-0 through an air flow then harrow it in. |
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Southern Alberta Canada | We've always broadcast alfalfa and harrowed it in. These days we use a Loral spreader. We always blend with oats and/or barley for greenfeed or silage as a cover crop and fertilizers.
Actually we broadcast all small seeds and sometimes up to over half of our cereal crops if we get behind especially during wet years. We find germination very uniform with broadcasting and under irrigation during a dry year we can get it wet and growing very nicely. |
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Saronville NE | CIH 5400 mintill drill. 18lbs dryland 22lbs irrigated. |
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| brillion |
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Coloma WI 54930 | Where does the seed go after it leaves the Gandy? On top of the ground and packed in, into some drill openers, or something else? Thanks J.R. |
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| Brillion or Land Pride smack seed seeder. |
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S.C. Wisconsin | Grain Plains drill. It has a separate alfalfa seeder that drops it in front of the press wheels. For the first time this summer I seeded alfalfa and run it through the big box which put's it between the disc and the press wheels do the closing. I had one of the best stands ever and wondered why I used the separate seeder for about 12 years. This way I can adjust my seed depth. We used to have Brillion but always had problems getting a stand on light soils. We seed 15 lbs per acre. |
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S.E. Iowa | brillion by far the best most consistent stand, use a JD drill a year ago and was really disappointed |
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Charles City. Iowa | Billion sure stand is the best . 12 foot are $15,400 |
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| I use a set of 3 7' JD PDA drills and use them to no till in alfalfa mixed with oat seed. I use the oates mainly as filler so the alfalfa doesn't just flow through the drills. The oates does grow and I cut it and bale off what little there is. I've done it this way for 10 years, on 60 acres and the stand has been excellent. The land doesn't get worked at all, just sprayed heavily and usually was soybean ground the year before. |
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ne nebraska | disk it. roll it. broadcast. then roll it again. |
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DV, NV | dairyman78 - 9/5/2013 06:34
Grain Plains drill. It has a separate alfalfa seeder that drops it in front of the press wheels. For the first time this summer I seeded alfalfa and run it through the big box which put's it between the disc and the press wheels do the closing. I had one of the best stands ever and wondered why I used the separate seeder for about 12 years. This way I can adjust my seed depth. We used to have Brillion but always had problems getting a stand on light soils. We seed 15 lbs per acre.
Just bought a 1500 to replace our old Case 5300. Lately, I've been a fan of using the big box and controlling the depth and placement a little more than just dribbling it out from the small box in front of the press wheel. A lot depends on soil moisture and ground prep. If its dry and powdered up a Brillion is hard to beat. We are a little late but planted 60 acres today. Was too slow beating the monsoon a couple weeks ago so we'll see if we get lucky with the frost this fall. Sure did a nice job compared to the dust it in a hope method we usually have under wheel lines.
Neighbor has had good luck lately with his Valmar fert cart and 40' of schmeiser packers. Gets a LOT done in a day! |
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Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot | Brillion.
Neighbors have great luck spreading it 2x's @ half rate with an airflow, and they have a big cultimulcher with the knobbed wheels instead of the crowsfoots. Basically the same thing as a Brillion. But a whole bunch faster.
1/4" is plenty deep enough, but I'll water it once heavy and then run short irrigations until it is established. I'd not want any seed deeper than that, under irrigation. I also don't know why you'd want it in rows, seems having the same number of seeds broadcast well would end with a higher final plant count. |
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Watonwan County MN | Brillion seeder. |
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Parsons Kansas | I have had it done several ways. Blown on with a big AirMax mixed in with some fertilizer. Brillion seeder and broadcasted out of a spreader truck. I have small fields of alfalfa so it is hard to get someone with a spreader truck to come and do it at the right time. Rented a Brillion seeder a time or two and thought it was the best. Finally got my own Brillion seeder bought so now I can have it when I want it. I also plant Teff so that helps justify the Brillion seeder with so few acres. Darren |
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East central South Dakota | JD Air seeder. Used the 1860 and 1890 successfully |
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Central NE | Great Plains double disk opener drill on 6" spacing and 1" depth bands bolted to the side of the opening disk puts seed at about 1/2 inch depth. Pack it twice first.
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Douglass Kansas | Have used a Great Plains no-till air seeder 12lbs per acre in wheat straw, set the coulters so they were barely in the ground. Going to do the same thing this year. |
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SC Kansas | Ih 510 drill with the seed tubes pulled out the boot and broadcasting, Airmax alfalfa / fert blend, Brillion. IH drill being my favorite. |
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Washington, Kansas & Lincoln, Nebraska | . |
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Amherst WI | Grandpa's old John Deere drill with the cultimucher with the teeth up behind it. I love driving this thinking of the "good old days" with grandpa, but I have to work everything with this setup. Some of the erosion I had this year was not only unacceptable but I also had it so bad on 35 acres I got to start over. A 750 drill with grass seed is right up there towards the top of the wish list before next year.
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SW Ohio | tilled----brillion by far with extra cultipacker in front and/or back optional
750 drill second choice, no grass seed box, use the big one
no-till reverse the above. |
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SC Montana where General Custer should've stopped | We heavy harrow flood irrigated fields after grain harvest and get stubble baled off. Have 20-22 pounds alfalfa seed mixed with 100 pounds of granular 11-52 (Phos.) and then have fertilizer dealer spread with Air Max and roller down with roller harrow (minimum tooth action) and flood irrigate or spinkle and get back. Must get three leaf before fall or frost comes.
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NM | We are doing the final plaining on 200 acres now , waiting on corn to be chopped to do another 2 pivots. Seed will be blown on with a Valmar applicator at 36 lbs / acre, then roled in with a brillion roler. Why 36 lbs/ acre ? That is all it will put put out .
Edited by krantz 9/6/2013 00:22
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Inglis,MB | Valmar air applicator mounted on the land roller. |
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. | Case IH 5400. For years we ran an old #10 McCormick that looked like it belonged in the junk heap, but it still did the job. |
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Eastern Oregon | Disk, roll, broadcast at 20# per acre and roll again. We don't like cover crops. After the first year, the only stands that look better than ours is our neighbors that use RUR alfalfa seed to clean their row cropping fields between plantings... |
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| I've just been having my seed blown on by an air truck, 20 lbs. acre. Depends on the truck if it has co-applicator boxes no fertilizer, if not I have them mix fertilizer to get it spread. I blow it on hard ground, after a crop of oats for hay then I flood irrigate and also use wheel lines on some ground. Lot faster and better coverage than drilling. Never roll it or anything after blowing it on, water and go with it. Never had a failure doing this in over 15 years. |
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| Brillion... |
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nw mb | double disk drill, full tillage so we just dribble it on top using grass seed box, usually do 2 passes 5lbs each pass, 2nd pass is a 45deg angle to first one. so far so good |
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NM | That's what I want |
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Lantry, SD | Airplane. 10-15# |
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Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot | Are you planting into stubble? Or bare ground that has been worked up after oats?
I've got some flood ground to plant, was thinking about trying to seed into the stubble. |
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| Sorry Ben, didn't come to this site till this morning. I usually plant a crop of oats for hay around 120 lbs. per acre. Just before cutting I have them spray it with roundup to kill get all Canadian thistles, and other stuff. Then I just bale it, then just blow seed on hard ground in stubble, I don't work the ground at all. there will be some cracks in the ground, but it hasn't seemed to bother at all. Seen the seed germinate in those cracks. I use 6" siphon tubes to flood with, will get a little washing at the head ditch because of the bigger tubes. But a year later can work the dirt back up to fill in the little washes. The only down fall of doing it this way is there might be a little chaff from raking and baling left in windrow. Seems to slow growth of alfalfa a little, some times I've had to thicken it up, most generally I don't ever have to touch it again.
Done it both ways with drill or air truck. The problem I always had with a drill was seeing where I was at, as I just basically let seed drop on the ground with disc's just barely marking the ground. I never had a foam marker or GPS so it was hard to see where I was at sometimes. When I first started blowing the seed on I could rent a air cart for $2.50 acre 50' booms with foam marker, they brought it full of seed for me. It was a sweet deal, took no time to plant a 40 acre piece.
Back when I started using the air carts I had a CIH 5100 drill, that thing leaked more seed out of the seeder than it drilled from day one it was new. I've got a JD end wheel drill now which is 100% better other than the time it takes to drill. First time I used the JD to plant alfalfa was this last spring, I thickened up a new stand I had co-op put in last fall. I worked that stubble ground up because it was in barley and the chaff was too thick, I should have worked the ground one more pass as the volunteer grain killed some of it out.
I tried to plant some RR alfalfa seed this spring with a nurse crop of oats, I drill oats and got them up. Just before irrigating I had co-op lined up to blow seed on, well got a rain about the only rain all summer hit right then. They made some deep wheel tracks in soft ground, it sure made it tough to water, had to do some serious shoveling. The only reason I did it that way was because we were going to be short on water so I felt it was my only time to get new seeding in. Looking back I wish I would have just sprayed oats to kill and took my chances on blowing seed on later and only watering it two times instead of four that it got. I only had canal water to water this place, couldn't run my well on it. I had blown seed on a cover crop before, but the ground was firmed up after planting the cover crop so truck didn't leave much for a track. But this time with the rain that just hit it caused a lot of grief flooding it. If it would have been under sprinklers it would have been just right. Just wasn't my luck that day. |
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What is your preferred tool to plant alfalfa with,
