Anyone build a food plot seeder?

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5 year old buck +
Brain is stuck on this topic lately. Just got to make one....

Thinking maybe something basic.

I have a drop spreader, spring harrows, 2 small discs, 2 john deere small seed boxes.

Thinking of drop spreading oats n fertilizer infront of the spring harrows, then Using some wood to level the harrow, drop clover seed behind the leveled soil, then a short run of chain harrow to mix it in a bit.

This is dragged behind on an ATV for about a mile long stretch of trail. about 6-12 feet on each side of the trail. Trail is mowed twice a year and sprayed a week before seeding. Some residual, nothing too crazy in thatch. Plotting area will be rolled in by my crew of misfits on their ATV's after I seed.

Also debating making spike rollers like some of the Woods or Brillion Seeders use. Looking to make this 3ft maybe 3.5ft wide.

Not looking for perfection or maximum forage. Looking to streamline my chores at camp here. Looking to get away from perennial clover and just fall planting annual clover n small grains.

Current method is to mow n spray, then spring harrow a seedbed. Broadcast fertilizer, grains, and 1/2 the clover. Then turn the harrow down light. Then hand broadcast the remaining clover. Then roll ATV tires on it. Sometime drag 3 pickup truck tires bolted together while I roll.
 
I'm all about a project!
This one looks about as basic as you could make
 
Brain is stuck on this topic lately. Just got to make one....

Thinking maybe something basic.

I have a drop spreader, spring harrows, 2 small discs, 2 john deere small seed boxes.

Thinking of drop spreading oats n fertilizer infront of the spring harrows, then Using some wood to level the harrow, drop clover seed behind the leveled soil, then a short run of chain harrow to mix it in a bit.

This is dragged behind on an ATV for about a mile long stretch of trail. about 6-12 feet on each side of the trail. Trail is mowed twice a year and sprayed a week before seeding. Some residual, nothing too crazy in thatch. Plotting area will be rolled in by my crew of misfits on their ATV's after I seed.

Also debating making spike rollers like some of the Woods or Brillion Seeders use. Looking to make this 3ft maybe 3.5ft wide.

Not looking for perfection or maximum forage. Looking to streamline my chores at camp here. Looking to get away from perennial clover and just fall planting annual clover n small grains.

Current method is to mow n spray, then spring harrow a seedbed. Broadcast fertilizer, grains, and 1/2 the clover. Then turn the harrow down light. Then hand broadcast the remaining clover. Then roll ATV tires on it. Sometime drag 3 pickup truck tires bolted together while I roll.

I bought a used 4' Kasco no-till versadrill for about $3K a number of years back. It worked well for large seeds like beans and corn. It will plant just about any seed, but I don't use it much now. I found that I can simply surface broadcast most smaller seeds and cereal grains and then use a cultipacker to press them into the soil. This method is just as effective for me and faster.

Thakns,

Jack
 
I bought a used 4' Kasco no-till versadrill for about $3K a number of years back. It worked well for large seeds like beans and corn. It will plant just about any seed, but I don't use it much now. I found that I can simply surface broadcast most smaller seeds and cereal grains and then use a cultipacker to press them into the soil. This method is just as effective for me and faster.

Thakns,

Jack
Im leaning towards something like hat, but do the seed is the same pass. Using the drop spreader while using the spring harrows to mix them in. Then the john deere FBB small seed box infront of a chain link drag.

I am doing a long run of trail, over a miles. Many places doing a 3ft pass on either side. Some spots are more like 20-30ft. The narrow spots dont get even coverage with hand broadcast. I also have a bad foot from an accident, so I cant walk too much without pain. Used to stalk hunt this 600 acre spot. Now, I hunt in a stand.

I ued to mix up pelletized lime, fertilizer, and seed then harrow it in. Put 1/2 the clover seed in the mix, then top dress the clover with lime mixed in, then roll it with the ATV tires. Tired of the dust.....
 
I bought a used 4' Kasco no-till versadrill for about $3K a number of years back. It worked well for large seeds like beans and corn. It will plant just about any seed, but I don't use it much now. I found that I can simply surface broadcast most smaller seeds and cereal grains and then use a cultipacker to press them into the soil. This method is just as effective for me and faster.

Thakns,

Jack
What do you plant in the summer if you’re 100% broadcasting?
 
What do you plant in the summer if you’re 100% broadcasting?
I plant for summer, not in summer. I'm in zone 7a and working close to the scale needed for QDM. Summer is a lightly greater stress period here than winter. I used to plant soybeans with a light mix of corn for the summer stress period. The corn was more for vertical cover than food (7:1) ratio by weight beans to corn. After a pine thinning adjacent to my fields and a control burn, marestaail came up from the seed bank in the pines and the fields go infested with after it went to seed. The combination of initial burn down and post planting gly use favored the marestail. I was finally able to get it under control by using both herbicides and planting a smother crop of buckwheat and sunn hemp for summer. I found them to be just as useful as the soybeans for covering the summer stress period, less expensive, and easier to plant, so I stuck with them since.

When I was planting beans, planting time was critical and changed from year to year. I had to wait for soil temps to be over 65 degrees to get a good crop. If that came too late in the spring, once does dropped fawns, they quickly hit the beans and even forage beans would be naked all summer. If the beans had time to get established before fawns dropped, the does would stay in cover and the beans would do well.

One advantage of the buckwehat and Sunn Hemp is that they like very warm soil. While deer use them, they are faster growing and seem to be able to get ahead of the browse pressure in spite of late planting. Buckwheat has a wide range of soil temps in which it will germinate, but I find if I planted it early (I'm on the edge of being able to double crop it), that first planting was lethargic compared to the second. So, I've been planting in late May or early June in my area. We still have sufficient rain at that point. I can plant as late as the 4th of July if needed, but that means I'm killing a viable crop to plant my fall mix.

I broadcast these and then run a cultipacker over them.

Thanks,

Jack
 
Ok. I've looked over every kind of seeder there is on the market......

Flame away guys..... I am using an ATV for this. Ford 8N stays home.

MY plan is to make it 30-32" wide. I am using some sort of concrete filled 6 to 10 inch tube with 1.5-1.75" spikes made from 3/8" bolts. 6-8 spikes around 4 inches apart. Very much like the woods super seeders. If using 8 or 10 inch tube, I will place (2) of them inline with no angle of attack. IF using 4 or 6 inches I will put them at an angle. Much like fluffing harrows. If I am using hte large wheels, I will have something light dragging behind it. If using the smaller ones at and angle, I will make 3rd roller with 3/4 or 1 inch spikes to rotate the seeder assemblies.

I already have the john deere small seed boxes for the clover. That will spill ontop of the rear wheel. I have a 32" backyard drop spreader. I am thinking of dividing hopper into 4 parts. 2 of them being bigger than the other. The opening under the drop spreader section will individual openings. The openings are triangles already. The spreader already has a chain drive on it. I still might get some fluted rollers. There's a used fluted roller assembly from a deere 1990 seeder for $300 on ebay. Only need 4 or the dozen plus fluted rollers.

Step A is to make the spiked rollers and see if the ATV can pull them at 5mph. Then, Ill put the seed boxes on and make a towing frame.

Thinking of keeping the old john deere chain drive to drive the small seed box, the large seed will run off the small seed. The spreader uses common bicycle chain. The john deere small seeder has alot of regulation. So matching a gear will be easy. Ill put it on the smaller opening setting recommended for a small amount of clover, like 2lbs and acre of ladino. And Ill work with the speed of that with the spreader. Got tons of gears, axles, and chain to play with.

Goal would be to put down 6-8lbs of clover, while doing about 60lb and acre of oats or rye, and keeping the fertilizer light like 100 lbs/ acre. I usually put 6/24/24 down. Any heavier application of fertilizer I can hand broadcast. I have a gandy drop spreader I can put lime down, (2) sets of brinly 38" discs I can gang up, a york rake, 15 gal spreader, or york rake to do any other prep jobs. I also got a 42" tow behind rough cut mower and a 12v broadcast spreader for the ATV.

I make nicer stuff than grains n clover in my home plot some years. Other than turnips of daikon raddish, all i use is grains n clover.

ATV is rated for 26hp. My guess is I can put 6-8hp to the ground at 5mph in 1st gear. Soften up the top inch of soil for seed and roll it in............
 
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Getting closer. Got angle iron for the frame. Metal shaft for the rollers. 4 inch cast iron pipes to make the rollers with. Got concrete. Got a trailer axle I can pilfer for lift wheels. Got a trailer hitch for it too.
 
I am using some sort of concrete filled 6 to 10 inch tube with 1.5-1.75" spikes made from 3/8" bolts
If I undersand what you're aiming for with that, it might be easier to 10-14" pieces of rebar through the tube, so it sticks out both sides a couple inches. Put the pieces of rebar through the tube before you fill it with concrete. Then you don't have to worry about securing bolts and if they'll break loose.
 
rebar is a really maleable and coarsely hot rolled metal. I t is much easier to bend and break than steel. the serrations are hot rolled in, so they have miniture fracture zone that will make a stree crack real easy,. I'd prefer to use some sort of tool steel. Grade 5 bolts will hold up alot better. Im not using the threads, Im cutting them off.
 
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