# Advice needed on seeding a recently worked field-Videos included.



## tmac196 (Aug 26, 2014)

Last fall, we more mouldboard ploughed about 40% of our existing hay field because of poor yield. The segment which was ploughed last fall






was then amended with lime and potash as-per recommendations of the local co-op following extensive soil testing.






At that time, I also used a disc harrow work the ground and break up what residual sod had been left on the surface of the field.






This spring, I am waiting for it to dry enough to further work the ground prior to seeding.

The plan is to use a railroad tie drag to level the ground and smooth it:






and then subsequently a Crowfoot cultipacker and a standard cultipacker to firm up the seed bed. Once the field was appropriately prepared, I will broadcast seed a mixture of Kootenai Timothy, alfalfa, Brome grass, orchard grass and festulolium.

After broadcasting, I plan to run the cultipacker over the ground a few more times to make sure that we have good contact with soil.

My soils are yellow sand and are well drained. They are relatively high in phosphorus because previous owners spread manure on what is now my existing hay field for several years before hand. The pH is now close to neutral based on the amendments we made last fall and potash levels are now normal.

A few questions come to mind:

Are there any obvious downsides to broadcast seeding using a 3 point funnel attachment as per my plan?

When is the optimal time to seed this spring? I am in southeast Michigan. We will have occasional overnight freezes through the beginning of May. Last year, I successfully "Frost seeded" giant clover into my hay field in early April. Would early April be in acceptable time to plant the hay seed defined above?

Any thing I haven't considered?

I realize fall seeding may be preferable, but I wasn't able to get the project started till October, too late to over seed.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

tmac196 said:


> A few questions come to mind:
> 
> Are there any obvious downsides to broadcast seeding using a 3 point funnel attachment as per my plan?
> 
> When is the optimal time to seed this spring? I am in southeast Michigan.Would early April be in acceptable time to plant the hay seed defined above?


Downsides to broadcast seeding with a funnel type spreader.....if the wind is blowing it is trouble.....and it is easy to miss "strips" if you are not very conscious of your passes....better to use more seed and overlap a little more than to have no grass in long strips where your passes with the tractor were a little wide. The very best thing to use is a Brillion seeder and then it will be exact if you dont let it run out of seed.

You need to seed now as soon as the soil is dry enough to get on it....if it starts raining it could delay planting considerably. Light freezes will not hurt cool season grass seedings. Seed like Orchard grass takes much longer to germinate than Timothy....almost twice as long. Successful spring seedings are done very early in the spring.

Regards, Mike


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## tmac196 (Aug 26, 2014)

Mike- Thanks for the tips. You happened to comment upon both of my biggest concerns: Patchiness of seeding density with a funnel seeder (I have ordered more seed to compensate for this) and the "hardiness" of new seedlings given our common overnight freezes this time of year.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

If you are going to spread anymore fertilizer on this ground before you seed, I would mix the seed in with the fertilizer and broadcast it like that. Most Co-op's have no problem doing that but I don't know your situation. Mike


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

It will take some major tillage to get this field smooth and level and then firmed up for seeding.


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## OneManShow (Mar 17, 2009)

Where I am broadcasting seed in the spring is risky unless the ground is irrigated. I have had great luck broadcasting timothy in the fall. Timothy seed is dense and smooth, like clover and alfalfa, a Vicon spreader will fling those seeds 30 feet or so. Other grass seed , orchard rye, festulolium is too lightand fluffy to cover much ground per pass at least in my experience . I would recommend seeding north-south and east-west to help with coverage if you do broadacst. Here I will only drill seed in spring, to make sure it is in moist ground. In our soils, grass seed farmers routinely plant fescue as late as June with good success, even on dry ground, but our soils are mostly clay and retain tons of moisture. A firm seed bed and good seed to soil contact is essential to germination, as is moisture and available soil nutrients. You might consider using coated seed if available. Good luck.

Mike


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## tmac196 (Aug 26, 2014)

Update:

The seeding and cultipacking was completed this past weekend. We broadcast seeded approximately 6 acres in 10-20 mph winds and crossed the field in perpendicular routes to insure adequate coverage:






Next, I attached a "crow foot" and a more traditional cultipacker in tandem and overlapped the pattern to insure good seed contact:






This week, rains are forecast for the next 3-4 days.

More to come. I want to thank all of you for your advice and feedback.

One mistake I made was to not "finish" the field to the point where it was ready to plant last fall. I left the ground soft (post disc harrow) over the winter and did not count on the spring thaw and spring rains which made the field too soft to work and finish this spring which set my planting back two weeks. Had I done all of this last fall when the ground was dry, all I would have had to do this spring would have been to plant and cultipack.


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## toddhandy (Jun 20, 2014)

I just had one of my fields farmed for 3 years, now i just planted it to Alfalfa and broom-grass. I planted 17 lbs of Vernal alfalfa, 1.5 lbs of meadow broom and 65 lbs or fertilized per acre. The ground had lots of sub moisture so a cultivated it. I had the local coop spread it with there big floater, this thing is fancy it was all GPS so there were no skips or overlaps. Then i lightly harrowed it and we got ~ .75 inch of rain that night. This was one week ago I hope it turns out ok the field is 68 acres. it was not a cheap project


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