# No-till seeding of millet



## Reverence Farms (May 12, 2020)

I have a Lilliston Bush Hog 9670 no-till small grain seeder available to use. Last autumn my friend and I calibrated it to drop 105# of a triticale/annual ryegrass mix. On review of bags used and the 100 acres covered, we were within 5% of calibration. (suggested rate by seed company of 100#/ac, so we did well).

So, it's time for warm season annuals to be planted and we are planting BMR pearl millet (King Fisher Prime 360) to make for baelage. The seeder has a chart on the inside of the hopper box lid for settings for commonly used crop seeds i.e. beans, wheat, rye, barley, millet, sorghum, etc. Yesterday I was about to calibrate it (but rain was threatening), so I asked my friend who was with me (and owns the seeder) "why can't we just go off the chart that is printed since its a single grain?" (not a mix like last autumn). He said he would go off the chart if he were planting the millet. So we put it at setting B1 as shown on the grid chart (with a 30-30 wheel drive) to yield 28#/ac for millet under the "fine" type seed listings. Millet was also listed under the grid for intermediate, but this seed looked "fine". So for 15 acres at 30#/ac (450# total needed) I put in 9 x 50 # bags (450#), plus 1 bag extra for good measure. I went out and got 5 acres finished until it was too dark for me to see with the tractor headlights (a small older New Holland tractor). I brought the tractor back into the barn before a few days of forecasted rain. I looked in the hopper and it empty - completely empty!! It should have had 10 acres worth of seed still in it (300#).

Any ideas what I did wrong (besides not manually calibrate it)? I went straight off the chart, had my friend whose seeder it is and grew up on a farm thinking all systems were go, filled it with 500# millet seed and started. Now I have to figure out where the seed ran out and also probably see a jungle of millet where it was planted at 100#/acre!

I'm kind of new still to doing planting so I could have missed something obvious.

Thanks ahead...


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Reverence Farms said:


> Any ideas what I did wrong (besides not manually calibrate it)? I went straight off the chart, had my friend whose seeder it is and grew up on a farm thinking all systems were go, filled it with 500# millet seed and started. Now I have to figure out where the seed ran out and also probably see a jungle of millet where it was planted at 100#/acre!
> 
> I'm kind of new still to doing planting so I could have missed something obvious.
> 
> Thanks ahead...


Manually calibration is your friend. What I also do is only put in say 25% of seed, check amount remaining after planting 10% of acreage (on smaller plots). If you are way off base, you still have 75% of the seed remaining, not 0%.

IDK the price of millet seed, hoping it wasn't an expensive lesson and IIRC I may have made this type of mistake. 

Larry


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Drilling small seeds can be a fickle ordeal. At least Pearl Millet germinates quickly and you will be able to see where you ran out.

Had a friend run out of Pearl Millet this spring before finishing. Just a few acres though. We can not find Pearl Millet seed anywhere now, even to order. He finished with Brown Top just to get a stand of something.


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## Trotwood2955 (Sep 4, 2012)

I have that exact same drill. I've never planted pearl millet but did use it for German (foxtail) millet years ago several times. I always used the small seed box and not the large box. I want to say around 15-20 pounds/acre purely from memory. Not sure how big the pearl seed is but I would think the intermediate feed wheels would be way too large, at least for the German seed that I planted. The medium or fine wheels seem like a better option if your drill is so equipped (mine is set up with medium and intermediate...you flip the block off covers for each drop as needed). Or the small seed box, though it will mean more stopping to fill seed.

On mine almost always you have to set it higher per the chart settings to end up with the desired rate. For example if the chart says a given setting will get you 25 pounds/acre in reality it might only be 20. So I always aim high. Your results may vary.


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## Trotwood2955 (Sep 4, 2012)

Edit: I have a 9690 model, the 10 ft wide version. The 9670 I think is the 7 ft model. But all of the above comments would still apply.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

I always start with 3-5 bags of something in a drill and get off and check after no more than an acre.


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## Trotwood2955 (Sep 4, 2012)

What HiTech said. Even after I get the drill set where I want it I still get out every so often to make sure still have plenty of seed, tubes aren’t plugged up, old dry rotted feed wheel hasn’t broken...


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## HayMike (Mar 22, 2011)

+ on what Trotwood said. Block-off covers might be in wrong position, or wrong metering wheel installed. I liked that drill for its metering, not so much for ground clearance.


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