Aitchison GrassFarmer / Simtech

[Ant]

To accommodate the " Aitchison Boot " I believe that the drill depth has to be of the order of 25mm.How does one resolve this with the sowing of small seeds such as clover?

 

[BSH]

It depends on what you are sowing the seed into. The depth of the seed is not necessarily the same as the depth of the boot. the depth of the seed is the amount of soil pulled over the trench created by the boot. In a loose seed bed you can just scratch the surface. In turf normally the small amount of soil pulled over the seed means it is in fact shallow seeded even if the trench is 25mm deep.

 

[Kevtherev]

@neilo

 

[Ant]

It depends on what you are sowing the seed into. The depth of the seed is not necessarily the same as the depth of the boot. the depth of the seed is the amount of soil pulled over the trench created by the boot. In a loose seed bed you can just scratch the surface. In turf normally the small amount of soil pulled over the seed means it is in fact shallow seeded even if the trench is 25mm deep.

I get it now- many thanks.

 

[JD-Kid]

yea it's the dirt over the slot not the depth of the boot .. clover alot of the time just spread on the top and harrowed with grass going down the spout

 

[mikep]

Knew an old farmer who fed clover seed to his stock when pastures got a bit thin. Spread, fertilised and covered with no effort. His fields always looked well but never had the nerve to do this myself! Anyone else done it?

 

[neilo]

Knew an old farmer who fed clover seed to his stock when pastures got a bit thin. Spread, fertilised and covered with no effort. His fields always looked well but never had the nerve to do this myself! Anyone else done it?

Tried it. With cows, you can get a bit to come, in small, cow pat sized patches. With sheep, the only clover I got to grow was in the patch round the mineral bucket where they spilt some out. Thinking was that the sheep muck was damp enough to make the clover seed germinate, but then dried out & died. Both a waste of good clover seed, IMO.

As far as the Simtech is concerned, I'm still learning, but would agree with above posts in principle.

 

[JD-Kid]

Tried it. With cows, you can get a bit to come, in small, cow pat sized patches. With sheep, the only clover I got to grow was in the patch round the mineral bucket where they spilt some out. Thinking was that the sheep muck was damp enough to make the clover seed germinate, but then dried out & died. Both a waste of good clover seed, IMO.

As far as the Simtech is concerned, I'm still learning, but would agree with above posts in principle.

neil grandfather used to talk of sheep at shearing time getting grass seed on there backs before going out on to the hills rub it off on bushes etc sheep camps ..think it works better if in a dry areas some were wet the seed would strike before getting rubbed off

we used to buy clover seed hay for cattle to try and seed some areas ummmmm think feeding animals with seed a waste of time better to just toss it on with some fert and chain harrow it in bit more cost but a better chance as well

 

[ploughman1963]

As far as the Simtech is concerned, I'm still learning, but would agree with above posts in principle.

Same with the Duncan - learning all the time. I go back and read what JD and some of the other Kiwi users wrote 3 years ago when I was researching drills and can now see the relevance/importance of some of the things that were said - but didnt appreciate at the time.