nrcs planters

has anyone ever used one of the grass planters from the soil conservation folks? Cant seem to get connected to the guy here who knows about them. wondering what type of hp is required on the machines they use or the brand,lady in the office doesnt know . ive always used just a regular drill with grass boxes on tilled ground, but i would like to get out of tilling this section if at all possible. Boss lady told me to just buy a new tractor and equipment i need to do it,but i dont really need them, if what i have will work.dont know that id live long enough for them to pay for themselves.trying to get everything up in shape as best i can though since ive got the health for it now.

I drilled native grass for the soil conservation district here 10- 12 years ago. It was a 10 foot Truax drill (no till). the district supplied the drill tractor and me to drive it. The tractor was a little CIH 454 i think. Maybe 30 -40 horse. The drill was heavy for that little tractor.

I had a guy come in with his on-till drill this spring and plant 27 acers. Check with a local USDA them and NRCS are linked. He charged about $30 an acer. I THINK he told me his 7' driil used was $26000. Nice thing about it it would hangle rock, and had three seed boxes. I'm in CO.

thanks,I dont believe they have a tractor here,and of course ive sold my big one.been looking at a kasco no till drill but even a six footer weighs 1200 lbs or so.looks like i need to start hunting a bigger tractor,AGAIN! can buy a six ft kasco drill here for right at 11k.carrier to convert it to drag type almost doubles the price so it would be far cheaper to find an old tractor ,even if i just used it for planting.Thanks again! I dont know wheather i want to get this involved again or not.would probably be cheaper to have the place sprigged and be done with it.i guess well see in the next couple of weeks if we get any rain if theres enough grass left in this section of rangeland to let it recover.three years of drought sure has hurt it though.

I know all about the dry weather thing. Thinking something like a 656 or oliver 1650 case 730 any one of those should work ok i think. See on sales some times the 120hp and larger go for about the same price or a little less sometimes. But what ever you do have fun with it. Think i planted buffalo grass, little and big bluestem, side oats grama and some other grasses that drill did a good job plantin.

yea i will be planting it back to native grass.this ground isnt much to start with,and pretty thin in most places before you hit gravel or sand rock. too many years of having it leased out has about done for it. I just happened to drive by and check it (family trust land) and got rid of the leassor as soon a his time was up.just too many cattle too long.

It varies from county to county since the drills are usually locally purchased. Most of them around here are 8 or 10 footers, Great Plains and Truax seem to be popular brands. IIRC 60HP for the 8 ft and 80 hp for the 10 Ft but its been a while since I looked.

NRCS is a USDA Agency like FSA, The districts are local partners with NRCS, but are a seperate organization, but are very closely tied to NRCS. When the SCS was started in respense to the dust bowl they had trouble connecting with farmers since most of the SCS folks were younger college graduates that were not local to the area. The Districts were created to have a bridge between SCS and the locals, now they have a lot more flexability then NRCS as long as they can stay funded.

ive dealt with them before,but just bought seed to plant. Ive never used their equipment. all ive personaly planted has been old farmed ground and i planted it with a regular drill.some of this ground was in a fire this summer and it was so dry it burnt right to the roots. some i disced or plowed to stop the fires.those areas wont be much of a problem since i could work them up and replant as I normaly do.biggest problem is family had this ground leased to a neighbor for the last 20 years or so and he way over grazed it.that and the drought sure has it in sad shape.ive went in and mowed a lot of the weeds down the last couple of weeks thinking that may let the grass get a jump on them this fall and winter since thats when we get the most rain typicaly.kind of afraid to spray this fall. since grass is so stressed already i thought i would try to let it recover a little before stressing it more.mowing,spraying and possibly replanting 480 acres isnt going to be cheap no matter how i go, so im trying to figure the best way.IF my mowing helps this fall ,its possible it might recover on its own,but it sure doesnt look good. i sure dont want to till it all up and start from scratch if i can get out of it. classic case of being land poor on this place.could sell it as is,but i think the grass would more than pay for itself if i got it up in shape first.or it could be usefull again ,either way it sure is a money pit like it is.