I was watching a video last night about drilling warm season grasses (everything other than switch). The man making the video explained that he no longer uses the warm season box on his drill and actually prefers using the large seed box calibrated to a mix of cracked corn and his seed mixture. He said that with today's seed, the warm season box with a large agitator is no longer a necessity. Reason I ask is because I am considering a Great Plains 606NT that has the large and small seed boxes, but no warm season box. I purchased an adjoining 27 acres that I am hoping to get enrolled in CRP for 2026. Also wondering how long it will take to drill?!?
Duckriver
Active Member
It depends. If your nwsg seed supplier debeards seed and cleans well... a regular drill will pass the seeds without any carrier. But if you are mixing various legumes, wildflowers, etc into the mix then it starts to complicate things. It will just depend on the species and mix ratios. Seed size matters. You will need to calibrate yiur drill with the specific mix to know if it will seed at appropriate rate or not. I have had to vacuum put seed and get a different drill many times. But today's drill have alot of adjustments and sprockets are cheap to change.
You can estimate about 2 acres an hour with that drill. But it really depends on field shape and how many times you must pick up and turn around. 2 acres in straight line without pick up doesn't take long. But 200 ft long times 6 feet each pass...takes a while.
You can estimate about 2 acres an hour with that drill. But it really depends on field shape and how many times you must pick up and turn around. 2 acres in straight line without pick up doesn't take long. But 200 ft long times 6 feet each pass...takes a while.
I have never had much luck in the big boxes. I’ve mixed a variety of things like rice hulls, etc. Best I’ve seen it “ok”. If I can use big box or fluffy- I use fluffy every time. The ONLY downside with a fluffy box (other than paying for it) - u need to gear it down low enough so the rate is low. Worst case- I’ll buy another gear type other than what comes with Great Plains & get it low that way. Easy.
Im gonna give it a try!
I used cracked corn and cat litter for filler on a CRP mix I got from [mention]IowaBowHunter1983 [/mention] in a Genesis 5 drill. Worked great.
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I forgot to mention ….. One thing to keep track of in a big box mixing fluffies …. Often times it costs a good bit for the stuff to mix - the filler. If you spending $10-20/acre on filler - big deal. I last time I did it - I think it was pretty darn pricey to add anything. Of course not a big deal if it’s a small amount of what has to be mixed in.
Ive used micro pine shavings in truax seed slinger. I wonder if they would go thru a drill. A cube is very cheap.