Greetings,

I am interested in covering a few acres with some seed crops to attrack wild turkey, grouse, and bobwhites. I looked into sunflowers, triticale, and a few other things, but they all seem to require a seed drill or at least a disk harrow. I'd like to avoid getting into the whole three-point hitch thing if possible.

Does anyone out there have any experiences in ultra-low input agriculture? Let me know what you've done.

 

I have had good success planting pasture and grass using a ridgid adjustable harrow. I start out with ground that has been tilled. Set the teeth straight up and down to break up the ground. Boadcast your seed then set the teeth almost flat and go over everything once. This only works in ground that has been worked before. IF you are trying to do this is sod you will need to tear it up or find someone with a no till drill and a tractor. There are pull behind attachments with wheels that might work. The use a 12V ram in place of a hydralic cylinder.

Dan

 

Dr. Rod, I have a single set of discs that I have put a regular boat hitch(1" 7/8")on. I hook it up to my 4 wheeler, add about 80 pounds to the discs and start discing. I've planted cow peas, rye grass and winter wheat this way. I also throw some fertilizer on the plot too. When done I take off the weight, leave the discs hooked to the hitch, lift up and chain the discs to my rack. The discs ride behind the 4 wheeler at an angle and it is really easy to move from plot to plot. It does make the front end of my 300 a little lighter though. My neighbor (who has a yellow 450) has the same set up. It doesn't cost as much as a three point set up and the results are same.

 

Greetings,

How do you broadcast the seed? I've seen a spreader that fits on the back of a quad, but I'm thinking of just using an old fashioned hand crank model. Its only about 2-3 acres and the current plant cover is very thin.

 

DrRod,

To broadcast grass seed and fertilizer I use a 12 V motorized seeder bolted to the front rack of my Sportsman. The seeder gets power from the accessory output on the Sportsman. It has what looks like a lawnmower throttle cable that allows me to adjust seed flow as I travel.

I borrow this from my neighbor and have never paid attention to the brand. I have seen them in some of the catalogs on line. I think I saw it in Cabela's catalog.

DJ