Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Weedy ... good review. Some questions...
What size & type of seed have you planted?
Can you stop the seed drop while you are still moving forward or do you have to get off and dis-connect?
Firminator
- Thread starter WeedyJ
- Start date
Weedy ... good review. Some questions...
What size & type of seed have you planted?
Can you stop the seed drop while you are still moving forward or do you have to get off and dis-connect?
I have a Woods Seeder - and no, it is not a Firminator - but it is similar in many ways. I think equipment of this type gets a bad rap sometimes because they are compared to a no-till drill - and they are not - and they dont cost nearly as much as a no-till drill. I think in some ways, for a lot of food plotters, they may be better than a no-till drill - remember - I said in some ways.
I just recently planted some eagle seed soybeans with mine. The picture shows what I was planting into directly in front of the tractor and what the ground looked like after making one planting pass to the right side of the picture.
Two weeks after planting
To me, these implements are about saving time. I can probably plant most seeds in another manner and they do as well - but with more time and equipment involved. This type equipment does plant small seeds like millet and clover very well because of the cultipacker and also plants two different sized seeds at the same time - at different depths - like clover and wheat.
My seeder has an 84” planting width. It is heavy. I typically plant 1 acre in 20 min. But, compared to a no-till, the vegetation needs to be thinned in some manner prior to planting - either through herbicides, bush hogging, winter kill, etc.
Would I buy one of these for ten acres? No - unless I just had some unneeded money burning a hole in my pocket. But for covering some food plot acres, in a relatively expedient manner, they are pretty hard to beat. But dont sell your spreader, disk, drags, cultipackers, or even your bag spreaders - I find a use for all of them.
I just recently planted some eagle seed soybeans with mine. The picture shows what I was planting into directly in front of the tractor and what the ground looked like after making one planting pass to the right side of the picture.
Two weeks after planting
To me, these implements are about saving time. I can probably plant most seeds in another manner and they do as well - but with more time and equipment involved. This type equipment does plant small seeds like millet and clover very well because of the cultipacker and also plants two different sized seeds at the same time - at different depths - like clover and wheat.
My seeder has an 84” planting width. It is heavy. I typically plant 1 acre in 20 min. But, compared to a no-till, the vegetation needs to be thinned in some manner prior to planting - either through herbicides, bush hogging, winter kill, etc.
Would I buy one of these for ten acres? No - unless I just had some unneeded money burning a hole in my pocket. But for covering some food plot acres, in a relatively expedient manner, they are pretty hard to beat. But dont sell your spreader, disk, drags, cultipackers, or even your bag spreaders - I find a use for all of them.
I'll post some pics soon as my plots come up. This year I am trying something new. I made a blend of cowpeas, buckwheat, sun hemp, daikon radish, chicory, sunflower, and a little corn just for kicks. I am slowly making my way towards no till, or as least as no till as I can get without a drill. A lot of my plots are still hard red clay with very little top cover. Part of the reason I went with this mix was to get a balance between food and biomass for the future soil development.
The seeder is ground driven via the cultipacker. There is a single key that you turn 1/4 turn to engage or disengage the seeder from the packer. You can prevent seed drop one of 3 ways: Lift the whole implement with the 3 pt, adjust the top link so that only the disc is contacting the ground(which can be done from the cab if you have a hydraulic top link), or turn the key on the Firminator. You have to get off the tractor to turn the key. I have yet to install the hydraulic top link, but hopefully will this weekend.
What I loved about the Firminator over the Woods was the ability to easily change (with the hydraulic link) the implement from a full bore aggressive disc with no packer/planter, to a full bore packer, with or without planting, and every combo in between. I can easily find that balance between how much disc I need and how much pack plant I need. So I can run through the field once just discing, then adjust it so I can plant/pack using the disc as gently as I need as an opener, if at all. The lack of separate seed boxes gave me pause, but my plots, and those yet to come are gonna need some work still, so the disc will still be a weapon for awhile. However choosing between the 2 planters would really be a no lose scenario IMHO. They both seem great.
I played on some plots this year. We tried single pas an the one plot I though it might work. Others, I disced moderately first, then came back and lightly disced as I planted. On 2, I tried heavier disc on the first pass, followed by plant/pack only with no light discing.
I would agree 100% with SwampCat about his opinion of these implements in general, with one minor sidenote. I currently am planting only about 4 acres in plots, and it is worth it to me for 2 reasons. First, my place is a 4 hour roundtrip drive from my house, and I still work full time. This means I need to get all I can from the time I am there. My plots range from 1/4 acre to an acre and I have about 8 plots currently planted. So running all of the ATV implements all over the place was phenomenally time consuming. This thing makes everything plantable in a day. Second, now that I have it, I am chomping at the bit to open up more plots as well as plant roads that I just haven't had the time to do yet. Here are a couple of pics:
This was a single pass plant. I did not spray any plots first this year.
This was disc followed by pack/plant with no secondary discing.
This was a low spot that didn't get worked. If you enlarge the pic and look closely, you will see the millet sized black sun hemp seeds, along with some others. This was the distribution when I set the seeder as if I was planting a Pennington mix. It was about perfect.
I didnt choose the woods over the firminator - or vice versa. I was shopping used and the woods is what became available - a one yr old woods 84” for $6000. I have an 8 ft, double gang, HEAVY disk - and my woods leaves a better surface than the disk does because the spike roller busts up the dirt clods. I have no sand in my soil - and even after disking multiple times with my heavy duty disk - I will have a lot of dirt clods. The spiked roller takes care of most of them and leaves a much smoother surface. The woods works really good on my five miles of trails for smoothing the ruts out. When I use it for just disking - I just disengage the drive systems for seed boxes.
This is where the pieces of equipment shine for me. Would i buy one if I was a commercial row cropper? No. But, I could get by without my disk if I needed to. This unit is actually better for some disking applications than a dedicated disk. I dont think a no-till will disk at all. I dont think a no-till can utilize two seed boxes at the same time. I believe these units are better suited to planting in rough ground - roots and rocks. Our local nrcs office said they would not rent their no-till drill to me because of the number of trees (and roots) that were in some of my food plots - fearing equipment damage. Never had a problem with my woods in there - and suspect a firminator would be the same way. This type equipment can not plant in existing vegetation like a no-till - it is not made for that. I will try to post up a picture tomorrow of a pass I made through some grown up pasture - fescue, little bluestem, and broomsedge bluestem. It actually did much better than I thought it wood.
This is where the pieces of equipment shine for me. Would i buy one if I was a commercial row cropper? No. But, I could get by without my disk if I needed to. This unit is actually better for some disking applications than a dedicated disk. I dont think a no-till will disk at all. I dont think a no-till can utilize two seed boxes at the same time. I believe these units are better suited to planting in rough ground - roots and rocks. Our local nrcs office said they would not rent their no-till drill to me because of the number of trees (and roots) that were in some of my food plots - fearing equipment damage. Never had a problem with my woods in there - and suspect a firminator would be the same way. This type equipment can not plant in existing vegetation like a no-till - it is not made for that. I will try to post up a picture tomorrow of a pass I made through some grown up pasture - fescue, little bluestem, and broomsedge bluestem. It actually did much better than I thought it wood.
I actually was trying to decide between the 2. Because I do NOT have a disc of any type for the tractor, I was planning on the implement to do some heavy disc work for me. I still have some ground that may need a good working one time, so I wanted as heavy of a disc as possible. It seemed logical to me that because I could adjust the Firminator so that the full weight of the implement could be put towards the disc, that I might have a better "heavy disc". Don't know if that's true, but that was the thought process that guided my choice. Otherwise the Woods may have been my choice, especially since the discing ability is as good as SwampCat says. In any event, I don't think you could go wrong with either! I'm curious to see how my combo planting of clover and oats works out this fall, given my lack of ability to plant at different depths, which the Woods can do.
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
I've been salivating over the Firminator or similar implements when I first saw it. In the past, I've had to make 10+ passes in clay soil with a small disc I own just to get the soil reasonable worked. It still ended up not discing up about 25% of the grass and weeds. The disc needs welding, so Pops told me today he bought a 6 ft rotary tiller. Looking forward to giving it a go!
That was my situation exactly. Strapping an old plow on top of my disc for weight and pulling with an 800cc ATV. Took numerous passes if dry, but really strained the ATV if it was wet. Not to mention lugging it from plot to plot. I did do some rototilling with a skid steer in the beginning, but I am now wiser in the ways of no till:-). No doubt the tiller was easier and gave a great seed bed at the time. Also helped clean up some of the roots when we opened up brush areas. This has been a huge timesaver for me in the few times I have used it.
This is a picture of one pass woods soybean seeding directly into unsprayed fescue/bluestem grown up pasture. Almost three weeks ago. The spike roller acts almost like a throw and roll, with a little dirt disturbance. Just need to spray gly and beans would be ready to go.
That looks great! Can't wait until I have that much to spray and roll!
Bad lighting but here's the results of one of my plots with the firminator. Three weeks along. Basically the same view as one of my previous pics where I disced fairly aggressively on one pass and the just planted and packed without any further light discing. If I had an exclusion cage set up there would be twice the height. Almost every plant in there has been hit and had the top eaten.I am getting some water on some of my plots. The ones without water are HORRIBLE. Some stuff is there, but basically worthless. We've had 0.75 inches of rain since March 21. The temps are in the mid 90's, and my soil turns to concrete.
davidhelmly
5 year old buck +
It looks good for no rain, we have been the same with weather and unfortunately all we can do is wait it out and hope!!
I have an acquaintance who lives in Georgia and we often talk on the phone. The weather that would come over me in South AR would normally be over GA in two or three days. Not anymore. AR is flooding and you folks are drying up. Texas was always thought of as hot a dry. Not anymore - they are now hot and wet - and have been for a few years - to the point OK and TX are now the go to waterfowl destinations over AR. This is probably just an extended, but temporary change. I have seen plenty of droughts before. You can plant and your stuff wont grow. With the continual wet weather, we cant even plant and the mice eat all your seed. Dont know which is worse.
Some of these folks in my home state are really having a bad time. A lot of homes flooded in the central part of the state and a lot of farmers crops gone. Too wet or too dry is never good.
Dukslayr
5 year old buck +
Many farmers here in NW Missouri aren’t faring any better. I was finally able to get out and mow today to prep for beans and sunflowers to be drilled tomorrow...it’s been an insane spring and any bottom fields along creeks or rivers are a goner. We have many cities/communities waiting for water to recede to clean up...and more water coming this week. It’s been a very tough spring for the Midwest.
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
SC - Curious how your beans fared when pressing in with your seeder like this? Wonder how well this would work into standing rye vs using a no til drill..
@WeedyJ - Still liking yours?
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The beans would have done fine had the deer not eaten them to the ground. Shortly after this picture was taken, I sprayed gly. As the fescue died and the beans grew, deer grazing pressure increased. It is a double edged sword. Leave the existing vegetation green to hide the beans and the vegetation out competes the beans. Kill the vegetation to reduce competition, and expose the beans to the deer.
My experience exactly. I planted sorghum with a massive amount of beans to try and hide them. Seemed to work the first year, but not the next.
I do still like mine. I feel guilty whenever the disc touches the ground though!
The disk gangs on the Wood Seeder are very easily adjusted - like in a minute. I seed a lot of wheat into standing clover and adjust the disk gang so it is not very aggresive - just to give the seed a slot to fall into - semi grain drill. Picture below is after planting wheat into previously sprayed summer growth, and planting two months later without bush hogging in to returning clover. Next pic is a month laterI do still like mine. I feel guilty whenever the disc touches the ground though!
There are times on my bottomland gumbo plots I set the disk gang as aggressive as possible. That ground can be like concrete. I have drug an 8’, double gang Mississippi Moline, 1900 lb disk acros that ground and barely scratched it. A no-till drill is ineffective in it. My Woods will scratch it up some on the first pass, but does better with two passes. This ground floods every other year and erosion is non-existant. I have more soil in some places on my ground than I did when I bought the place.
I also do a fair bit of work on trails and hog root with my Woods. I much prefer it to a regular disk because it breaks the dirt clods and packs, leaving a much smoother surface. Pics below are a trail on our bottom ground that had been rutted badly in the previous six months from us traveling through on our sxs’s. This is part of a 200 yard stretch that all looked the same. Took about 30 minutes for the whole 200 yards.
I got lucky when I bought my Woods - I had never used one or even seen one in person - and it turned out it worked great for me. Can it plant as effortlessly in standing vegetation as a no-till drill - no. Does it plant pretty well into standing vegetation - yes. Can a no-till drill smooth, level, disk, roll, cultipack? No - not even a little bit. I have had people tell me they bought a drill and sold all their other implements. That wouldnt work for me - I have too many rooting hogs, too many ruts in my trail, and too many times that gumbo is like concrete and it needs some disturbance. These types of equipment are a serious purchase. You need to be sure what you are spending a lot of money will work. For you. No way am I saying a Woods Seeder is the best food plot planting equipment out there. It is for me - but that said, I also planted this year using a 3 pt spreader, a electric SUV spreader, a hand crank seeder, and a single row covington planter. I have a business partner who can plant his ground the day after a two inch rain. He can sink a disk to the axle on the first pass in that sandy loam. I planted this year in four inch deep mud, and I planted in dirt that was like concrete - and some in between - but rarely in ideal conditions.
