# Brillion seeder



## Chucktown

New to the site.

Just bought a Brillion SST-1201 seeder. Never used one of these. Any tips or things to watch for would be appreciated. I live in east central Illinois. Will be planting orchardgrass and Alfalfa mix with a oats cover crop this spring. My plans were to work the ground up, broadcast the oats and then seed the alfalfa/orchard grass with the Brillion. Seeder has two boxes.
I intend to round bale the first cutting and then square bale whatever other cuttings I can get.

For those inquiring minds; I use a IHC 544 row crop tractor (about 50hp), JD 350 sickle mower, H & S V-12 wheel rake, Vermeer 605C round baler, MF 124 square baler. Will bale about 50 acres of hay. Run about 30 head of cows.

Chucktown


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## Optiwizard

I have had good results with one. Thats my pick for seeding worked ground.


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## Erock813

I would forget the oats, do a direct seeding and get that ground packed well. I would call it my cent worth.(Gave the other penny to the government.)


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## astropilot

One must have a firm seedbed. If your shoe sink more than a 1/4 in then you will need to pack it more. I go over with a cultipacker twice (sandy loam, riverbottom). Also, if you have the hydrualic version keep some weight on the wheels it does two things, one to see where you have been and a little overlap and second not get the seed to deep. Lastly, make sure that you put enough seed down, more seed less weeds. Since its mixed you want a strong stand weed-free no-way to spray.


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## BCFENCE

Thats the way i do it , i also sow oats with it in the spring so i can get something of the first cutting, if i dont want roll it i can get 4 to 5 dollars a bale for the square bale hay. THOMAS


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## Chucktown

Thanks for all the info. The main reason I want to put the oats on is that it will give me an early cutting to bale for the cows. It makes great cow hay. 
Chucktown


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## kmacginley

I borrowed one from my friend to seed our stand, Put the oats in the first box and alfalfa seed in the second I think. put orchard grass seed, about 2lbs per acre in with the oats. Got a good stand.


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## longmeadow farm

I purchased a Brillion SSBP-8 (3-pt) in the spring of 2007 after 30 plus years of using a drill/cultipacker for cover crops and annual/prennial grasses. I still can't seem to get the hang of it after two seasons..getting mixed results regarding germination... but I think I'm getting close. I tried to seed oats and cereal rye in the back box (with blade agitator) with very poor results. This year I resorted to the broadcast/harrow method and it worked fine.(i wish I never sold my drill) It would seem that the following should apply to get acceptable grass/legume germination. Set your 3-pt arms to float position, tilt the seeder back to keep it from "plowing" into the finer soils The ground has to be prepared very carefully and be very even/flat and preferably packed at least once with a cultipacker/roller, before seeding. The soil type is very important to note. Heavy soils can be seeded without prior packing with very reasonably good results, while the finer/lighter soils need to PACKED before seeding. The major draw back to all this prep work needed with the Brillion is that it now costs me more in time, wear and fuel than it did with the drill and its pull behind cultipacker. I have talked to numerous Brillion users over the course of a year and a half and have compiled a list of do's and don'ts.. but it still seems that results can be very variable...seed too depp or not covered. I have slowly increased the amount of seed I use to what I was using with the drill, so the Brillion doesn't save me anything there...
I'm interested in hearing from other Brillion seeder users and heatring of their experiences. It would seem to me that a pull behing model with Hydraulic wheels..just might be the better machine...comments would be appreciated


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## Byron Seeds

I have used a pull behind seeder for 2 years. It is difficult to get the seeding rates just right, I usually get it set and it puts on more than I expected. However field conditions are much better to cut new hay when disced and packed and then seeded with the Brillion seeder than when broadcast and then cultimulched in. First cutting the ground is usually still heavy and you are more apt to track or rut when the ground is not packed.

I love the seeder for ground conditions alone. Just make sure the ground is prepared perfect before seeding. I just wish there was more than 2 seed boxes.


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## longmeadow farm

Thanks for the feedback. I learned the hard way by experiencing the machinefor for myself, talking to other owners, such as yourself and reading the seed company suggestions. The Brillion folks were just not that knowleable about land preparation requirements... or they didn't want to tell me about it as the price of diesel was out of site last year. I've had a series of early bad experiences with the unit..starting with the misalignment of the wheels/packers. After 5 acres and much expensive Sucra-seed I discovered the problem. As expected, the seeding didn't do too well and I had to re-seed last August. I tried to seed oats in the rear box ..as advertised, but snapped the rear box drive pin after 8 acres... too much drag. I replaced the "pin" with a shear bolt and was able to seed many acres of prennial rye grass last summer. However, I will not try to seed oats or rye grain again as what I did seed didn't germinate worth a dam. I would like to talk to someone who has used the rear box for oats and/or winter rye with success. I also discovered that the rear "brome" box is not designed to seed mixtures such as rye grass and legumes ... and that some farmers actually use the front box to seed these mixtures... As you suggested, I discovered that the ground has to be as flat as possible and packed with little to no trash and that adequate prepatration is only obtained using a roller harrow or cultimulcher, after multiple diskings. I also discovered that seeding on a side hill is a problem.. as the tractor/seeder slides down hill too much on sandy soil.. not covering the seed adequately... causing spotty germination. When all conditions are perfect, the unit performs exceptionally well ..trouble is, that in any given 10 acres here in the northeast you often encounter multiple soil types and terrain.. thanks again..


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## 3w farms

Bought a Brillion Sure Stand 12ft seeder this spring, dont know how old it is probably 30yrs. It spent most of its life at the Iowa State U research farm . Did 30 acres this spring broadcasted oats as a nurse crop. 8lbs red and white cover and birdsfoot trefoil with 16 lbs mixed grass with the seeder. Really happy with the results, probally cut the oats and small bale, going to do 60 more acres this fall


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## hopliteltd123

Nice thread, getting so much information about seeding.


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## BisonMan

I went out and bought a brillion seeder recently. The company I purchased my seed from mixed my seed. Can the whole mixture with larger seeds run through the grass box ? Will the grass box sow larger seed without issue?

I suppose at 30lbs an acre application rate there might be a lot more fillups with this method, but I'm wishing the mix was just separated product at the moment.


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## r82230

BisonMan said:


> Can the whole mixture with larger seeds run through the grass box ? Will the grass box sow larger seed without issue?


Might depend upon what seeds were mixed together. Stuff like alfalfa, timothy & clover would seem to work OK I'd think.

Stuff like OG and alfalfa, IDK if I'd like that so well.

Larry


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## BisonMan

Newbie - I made the exact same mistake! I'm a newbie myself. Went out and got a used Brillion after ordering a seed mix for a new pasture. Now I'm wondering if I can run it all through the grass box. It's going to take alot longer as there will be way too many refills but as long as it gets sowed. I found a partial owners manual on this site yesterda on another thread.

My mix is:

20% Hokuo Timothy (Small Box)

20% Fleet Meadow Bromegrass (Large Box)

10% Switchgrass (Small box)

10% Tetragain Perennial Ryegrass (Large Box)

20% Leo Birdsfoot Trefoil (Small Box)

20% AAC Trueman Alfalfa (Small Box)

Haymaster - Can I ask you what might happen when the larger seeds go through the grass box? What might go wrong?


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## Uphayman

We run a 12' brillion. 2 boxes. I would suggest calibrating the machine first if possible. Owners manual might give instructions on procedure. If the mix is not separated small/ large seed , that'll be an issue. Probably won't pass through the small seed box.........while being sifted through the grass seed box. On ours , to calibrate, we lift machine, disconnect 1 chain, then manually turn drive (x) amount of times to equal 1/100th or 1/1000 th acre. Catch seed on a tarp, weigh seed x 100 or x 1000. Most of the reason for rate variability will be differences in seed weight and or size, between different bromes, fescues, OGs.

HTH


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## BisonMan

Thanks for the response uphayman. My forage guy was saying it shouldn't be a big problem because it's only 30% of the mix.

I am going to try and do this calibration. Hopefully some Rye and Brome come onto the tarp as I'm most worried about it somehow not coming through or jamming up in the seed box. Will that happen or will it just shuffle back through the box and the grass seed box will accumulate more and more of the larger seeds.

I will have to get a small scale to properly weigh it. And perhaps do a couple times to confirm the numbers.

Right now I have 22 bags of mixed seed and 60 acres to plant. I was basically thinking of putting it all in the grass seeder, going light at the beginning and seeing if I get three acres out of the first bag and hope for the best.

I was thinking of getting a nephew to try and sift the smaller seeds through somehow. Do you think this is a possibility?

We'll run another machine in front which will plant the oats. I probably have 10 days before planting given the weather forecast.


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## Uphayman

BisonMan: an issue you might have is being able to get the 30# / acre seed rate. It might be possible depending on the whether the mix is or isn't "fluffy". Was a challenge getting required amount of seed for straight fescue seeeded ground. Solved that issue with a " high speed" sprocket conversion from brillion. As the fluting is opened up more, seed has a tendency to literally fall thru.

You could seed it 2x at half rate different direction. Lot of work.


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## rjmoses

I just put out 15 acres of OG/timothy/med red clover pre-mixed using a Brillion. I set big seed box rate at a setting one notch lighter than the rate for the lbs/ac for OG. I always double seed the swales and end rows to get a better stand.

Came out about 10 lbs over.

Ralph


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## BisonMan

Uphayman said:


> BisonMan: an issue you might have is being able to get the 30# / acre seed rate. It might be possible depending on the whether the mix is or isn't "fluffy". Was a challenge getting required amount of seed for straight fescue seeeded ground. Solved that issue with a " high speed" sprocket conversion from brillion. As the fluting is opened up more, seed has a tendency to literally fall thru.
> 
> You could seed it 2x at half rate different direction. Lot of work.


Thanks for this. Right now I am assuming I will put it in the small grass box rather than put the mix in the large box.

It'd take a while having it seeded twice over but it could be done. I'm gonna try and get out there and calibrate it tonight. I figure I'll be counting which seeds come down in addition to the total weight.


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## BisonMan

I was working today to try and calibrate my SS1201 Brillion today. The grass boxes werent really handling the larger seed, basically nothing was coming out.

Im considering using the large box for the mix, 30% of my seed is brome and rye, so I am wondering about just using the large box at a really low setting of 1 or 2 if it will apply properly. In turning the drill, I didn't really find the seed moving through that quickly. I was actually a little underweight vs. expectation.

I am working with a local farmer who has been prepping my field, I am considering just letting him broadcast the seed. It kind of breaks my heart at not using the used Brillion I just bought but whatever is right for the field. I am putting down pasture so I could be looking at this stand for a lot of years. Right now the back half of the field is a lot lighter soil so we might be able to get on it earlier. It could break up the planting and give a little more time for error and re assessment of the process.

Right now are working plan is that he will sow the oats ahead of me with the drill and I ll put the grass down with the brillion. One error of getting the seed mixed and Im in a pinch. Looking back I would have loved to sow different fields with different mixes rather than have one master mix. I suppose given that its a new piece of property for me I wasn't really sure what would take best so liked the idea of having a single mix across all the fields in case some grasses take off better than others. Survival of the fittest kind of idea.


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## Uphayman

I should have a PHD by now for the money spent on my education. (Mistakes) . The goal is to get that pasture seeded right. Once you mentioned (mix) , I figured that ruled out the brillion seeder. I think your plan B , is the right move. GIT ER DONE !!!


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## BisonMan

I just did my calibration with the Brillion , 10 rotations at setting 2 got me 69.2 grams, Rounded that up to 75g as a little bit of it went astray.

I'm trying to understand the calc from the manual

276 RPM/Acre

10 Rotations x= 0.16lbs

0.16 x 27.6 = 4.4 lbs/ acre

I should be spreading 20lbs/acre seems low

I'm gonna head down there now, we won't be planting til for a few days yet.

I'm gonna give it the college try but will talk to my farmer and do whats best.


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## BisonMan

Just wanted to give an update on my first year with the Brillion.

We sowed the back field (sandy) yesterday and are just waiting a day or two for the front field (clay), which was still a little wet.

We're doing 60 acres of pasture, 22 55lb bags of seed and 150 bushels of oats.

I had a mixed seed which was my error. My custom guy and I decided to do it like this. Our application rate for pasture is 10lbs/acre of seed. 2lbs/acre Oats.

- He goes ahead of me with his drill, drills the oats (not too deep) with 10lbs/acre of seed mixed in.

- I follow him with the brillion, pack over what he did and also put down the other 10lbs/acre.

I think it's going pretty well so far. I had some issues calibrating because I've got 5 types of seed in there. I ended up going with the setting of 1 on the large box (after some mid field adjustments).

I am liking the brillion especially on the sandy loam, which there is a lot of in my area. The clay even when its worked up is hard on the machine so I've gotta slow down when I do it.


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## BisonMan

I thought I'd jump in and give an update. I'm sure guys are getting busy.

End of the day I ran the pasture mix through the large box at setting 1, which put down about 10lbs / acre which was what I wanted to put down.

My custom guy went ahead and drilled the oats mixed with the other 10lbs/acre of grass and I followed him and packed it in.

I could have just stayed home and let him do it but I think the brillion did a good job packing everything down and I got to get out there.

My family has a Case IH soybean special, and I'd consider the same approach on a family farm next year with my brother putting the oats ahead.

One thing that happened was the tongue snapped and we had to weld it back. It was rough riding on the clay and I was maybe pushing it a little hard on the clay. Other than that it ran like a charm, especially on the sand, it was smooth riding. On the rough clay ground it wasn't as good but the packing was probably worth it.

Thanks for all the help and tips for the newbie.


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## clowers

post some pictures when your stand comes up


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## Cobercow

Awesome!

I prefer to calibrate my brillion during in-field operation. This way, your adjustment accounts for field roughness and operating speed.

5 ft of 6 inch pcv pipe cut in half and suspended under the seed shields. Seed 200ft and weigh the contents. Plug in the formula and adjust as required  .

Don't forget to record your settings in marker under the seed box lid.....for future use!


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## DSLinc1017

BisonMan said:


> I thought I'd jump in and give an update. I'm sure guys are getting busy.
> 
> End of the day I ran the pasture mix through the large box at setting 1, which put down about 10lbs / acre which was what I wanted to put down.
> 
> My custom guy went ahead and drilled the oats mixed with the other 10lbs/acre of grass and I followed him and packed it in.
> 
> I could have just stayed home and let him do it but I think the brillion did a good job packing everything down and I got to get out there.
> 
> My family has a Case IH soybean special, and I'd consider the same approach on a family farm next year with my brother putting the oats ahead.
> 
> One thing that happened was the tongue snapped and we had to weld it back. It was rough riding on the clay and I was maybe pushing it a little hard on the clay. Other than that it ran like a charm, especially on the sand, it was smooth riding. On the rough clay ground it wasn't as good but the packing was probably worth it.
> 
> Thanks for all the help and tips for the newbie.


How did your stand come out?


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## BisonMan

Hi All

Sorry for the delay. Here is my results from last year.

I am going to plant a 9 acre field and follow a similar method with a smaller Case IH 5300 Drill in Front.

Oats & some grass seed mixed into it ahead with a drill. (Last year I did 50%, this year I will do 25% of grass seed)

Follow the drill with the Brillion Custom Seeder.

My custom guy who has been in hay a long time loved the way it came out. He mentioned that to me over the winter, well after all was said and done.

Planting was finshed May 10.









May 20 Stand ( I did have some luck with rain, basically beginning the day after crop was sown)









May 31 Stand









June 14 - 35 days after planting.


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## BisonMan

I was actually just talking to the farmer I partner up with.

He was telling me that a large operator in the area use a drill followed by a brillion, 500 acre field. They us a huge drill then go behind it with a 10 foot brillion.

Thats alot of field for a 10 foot seeder. I was surprised to hear it.


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## AndyH359

BisonMan said:


> I was actually just talking to the farmer I partner up with.
> 
> He was telling me that a large operator in the area use a drill followed by a brillion, 500 acre field. They us a huge drill then go behind it with a 10 foot brillion.
> 
> Thats alot of field for a 10 foot seeder. I was surprised to hear it.


Assuming he is spot on and has zero overlap, that is 412.5 miles of driving to cover 500 acres with a 10 foot seeder. At a about 8 mph (which is screaming fast for a seeder), that's about 50 hours of driving time. That's a couple of long days in the field just doing circles!


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## DSLinc1017

Thank you for the update! Its always great to follow a thread and actually see and hear of the results.


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