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SE IA | Does anyone have experience trying to establish a new alfala seeding with a no till drill? Have some rough ground that we had in soybeans last year and I hate to work it up do to erosion concerns. Have a Great Plains no till drill with coulter cart in front that does a fair amount of tillage. Am thinking of seeding alfalfa with some oats and brome/orchard grass and then running a cutli packer over to increase seed to soil contact. Is it a waste of seed?
Thanks. |
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Wyoming | I've no-tilled alfalfa (and/or grass seed) into stubble on level ground with a GP drill. Worked great. Adjust the drill VERY closely to make sure that your seed is not placed too deeply. Get out there regularly and check the seeding depth. If the ground is too rough, you might need to take a blanket harrow or something similar across the ground to smooth things out a bit. |
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South Dakota | This is my first post to this sight hope I do it right, If I don’t I think some will tell me
We have drilled alfalfa into soybean stubble with a JD 750 the drill did not have a grass seeder just put the seed in the big box set the drill at the low rate with the depth to 5/8th to 3/4th Inch deep. Would never go back to try the tillage thing any more. Got a very good stand with less seed then with tillage and it came up faster. Did this in late Apr early May got 2 cuttings the planting year Hope RR alfalfa comes back soon as we need to start a new field.if it don't would use a yellow pre.
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Little River, TX | Dean you are doing good.
My turn to show some ignorance.
When you say what are you using for your Yellow Pre? |
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northeastern Ohio | I have been no-tilling alfalfa for the past 10 years. I only have had one failure in those 10 years (field had a lot of wet spots and needed lime). I started with a JD 750 drill and now use a JD 1560. I put the alfalfa seed in the big box to save time. I set the depth wheels to the shallowest setting. I usually put some timothy in the grass seed box and let it dribble on top of the ground ahead of the openers. Most of my seedings have been done in the spring, but I did one after wheat one year. The spring planted alfalfa always gives me two cuttings the first year. Good luck and let us know how it turns out! |
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Sumner GA, Located in southwest GA, | Wondering too. I thought that was a no-no on alfalfa, would reduce your stand. Did I not understand correctly. If I didn't I wish someone would have told me lol. |
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Central South Dakota | my program for notill alfalfa is plant it with a drill like was said and than come in the same or next day with round-up and then 4 to 6 weeks later come in with Prowl H2O and Generic select to clean up the grass. ended up with one good cutting of clean alfalfa |
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South Dakota | right after planting
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Chatham Ontario (1 hr east of Detroit) | today i tried to run a field cultivator over some bean stubble the ground is fairly dry but i made 1 pass 150feet lest just say the boys are going to have a good fire tomorrow!! Ive got a 750 sitting there i didnt think it would work that good with alfalfa.I wasnt planning on seeding today(alfalfa)just the oats for a cover.do you leave the boots in the middle hole or do you move them to the bottom hole? |
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Beresford SD | I use Great Plains with coulter cart. I use the large box and sow 19-20# per acre. Erosion is greatly reduced as compared to using the Brillion on tilled ground as I used to. You will also have a firmer ,smoother field which really helps on windrowing the first year. We used 2/4D-B and Pusuit about a month after seeding and had very good weed control. You will cut your first cutting 60 days after seeding and can get 3 cuttings the first year here in SE SD . Last year we were too dry in August and did two cuttings. I always sow behind soybeans the previous year and have Redcop chopper on our combine to get thoroughly shredded and evenly dispersed spread behind our 30 foot head. I have found it works better to seed at a slight angle to what the soybean rows were. I set the disc setting about as shallow as it will go. I also carry the 3 point high enough so the coulters do not get too aggressive and the alfalfa rows are in a trench and could get buried to deep with a very heavy rain after seeding. |
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Northeast Nebraska and Candelaria Philippines | wow.... 20 lbs per acre!!!! That's nuts IMHO. We can get a good stand with 10-15 lbs. It's not how many you put out, it's how many you get to grow. 5 lbs would be enough if you could get them all to grow. It does depend on if you get treated seed or not.
Edited by kggonzo 3/24/2009 00:00
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North Cental Mo. | Limited experience here, but we had a field of brome, that we hayed. Well after looking at it with the hay off, it looked brown like it was dead. Took our GP drill out there with Pellet lime, and alfalfa. wonderful stand, until the next spring, brome just crowded most of it out I guess.
Roy |
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Lancaster County, Pa. | No-till alfalfa works very well "here", I'd never go back to tillage. I think with the setup you described a packer could be a good idea. If I were going to pull the packer I'd set the drill so I was not covering all the seed with the drill. Any GP drill I've ever seen leaves those inch high ridges between the rows. If you come in with a packer and knock those ridges in you could have seed too deep. One fellow above mentioned 3/4" planting depth. If we did that here we'd never see most of that seed again. One of the advantages I see w/ no-till alfalfa is the moisture retention. When you work ground 2 or 3 times and then lay seed in 1/4" deep it's not going to do anything without rain. If I plant into decent soil moisture I don't need rain to get it going. |
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Saronville NE | Have done notill alfalfa for pry 10 yrs now, have always had good luck with it, only one disappointent in those 10 yrs and it wasnt even that bad. Alot less erosion on rough ground, conserve the moisture and get faster more even stand right off the get go. We always sow 15+ on dryland and 20+ on irrigated. Just watch your settings pretty cose, dont get it to deep, and run your coulters shallow, and you will be fine. I prefer fall alfalfa because of less weeds and 3 cuttings instead of 2 with spring alfalfa, that usually goes behind wheat or oats, or millet. Spring alfalfa always goes behind beans here, even though I have drilled some for a neighbor into orn stubble, dryland, that ended up working ok. Good luck |
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No till alfalfa seeding
