Direct drilling grass seed.

[Diggerman81]

Hi,
any one got any advice on direct drilling grass seed in to existing ley that has been sprayed off someone said to me a verdastat drill would be good.
I cant really plough it as its rented land and the land owner would have be picking every last pebble of the field.
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

@Great In Grass ?

 

[Mouser]

Hi,
any one got any advice on direct drilling grass seed in to existing ley that has been sprayed off someone said to me a verdastat drill would be good.
I cant really plough it as its rented land and the land owner would have be picking every last pebble of the field.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Plough it then pack landlord off for a weekend break and do the job right!

 

[landslave the 2nd]

Make sure you do it twice at half rate to get a diamond shape not at 90 degree then heavy roll ASAP,worked well for me in the past

 

[Skimmer]

I just drill once with moore drill never found any advantage drilling twice

 

[james ds]

Hi,
any one got any advice on direct drilling grass seed in to existing ley that has been sprayed off someone said to me a verdastat drill would be good.
I cant really plough it as its rented land and the land owner would have be picking every last pebble of the field.
Any advice would be appreciated.

I've found that direct seeding did not last very long ,the old grass returned within a couple of years , but if the soil gets a good tilling this does not happen , so we disc Harrow it twice and then a light run of the power Harrow with a Fiona grass box on it , it spreads the grass very evenly , so no rows appear in the new grass .

 

[FonterraFarmer]

Hi,
any one got any advice on direct drilling grass seed in to existing ley that has been sprayed off someone said to me a verdastat drill would be good.
I cant really plough it as its rented land and the land owner would have be picking every last pebble of the field.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Make sure you do it twice at half rate to get a diamond shape not at 90 degree then heavy roll ASAP,worked well for me in the past

I just drill once with moore drill never found any advantage drilling twice

I've done both , single drilled and cross drilled, prefer cross drilled, but found single drilled at 10kg/ha has worked as good as any other rate I've used

 

[brynseiri]

Would I see good results in early spring, or would plough and re seed be a safer bet at that time of year, depending on ground conditions?

 

[Kevtherev]

@neilo

 

[Kevtherev]

Spray off the existing sward @brynseiri test for lime and watch for slugs

 

[Water Wheel]

, so we disc Harrow it twice and then a light run of the power Harrow with a Fiona grass box on it , it spreads the grass very evenly , so no rows appear in the new grass .

Will light trailed discs do the job , or do you need more depth control, as with compact discs with a roller meant for stubble work.
Trouble is I can't find anyone with compact discs in our grass area.

 

[james ds]

I bought a new 3 mt mounted disc for the job , the old light trailed disc won't do it unless you want to drive around the field all day .

 

[james ds]

Would I see good results in early spring, or would plough and re seed be a safer bet at that time of year, depending on ground conditions?

The plough is the worst option for reseeding at any time of year . This was proved at a big reseeding demo here this year.

 

[Mouser]

The plough is the worst option for reseeding at any time of year . This was proved at a big reseeding demo here this year.

What if the ground needs ploughed? I know you like to take a stance and stick to it but surely you can understand that a different approach can work for different people.

Spring reseeding works fine, will be a lot of weeds needing sprayed but it will need sprayed no matter when it's done. Watch out for chick weed smothering the grass

 

[rusty]

If you are direct drilling grass I would avoid early spring. I think it's better to wait until the ground has warmed up, which would happen quicker if ploughed/cultivated.
I use a Moore unidrill and direct reseed cow paddocks from June onwards when we start drying off and grass demand is falling.

 

[james ds]

What if the ground needs ploughed? I know you like to take a stance and stick to it but surely you can understand that a different approach can work for different people.

Spring reseeding works fine, will be a lot of weeds needing sprayed but it will need sprayed no matter when it's done. Watch out for chick weed smothering the grass

As I have said before I've reseeded every way over the years , I probably have done 6-8000 acres , so there isn't much grass sowing situations that I havnt seen , I now see nothing only disadvantages when using a plough on reseeding work , if you have a compaction problem the new pan busters will solve the problem , the new heavy disc harrows will create enough loose soil to level any unevenness , what is the point in burying the good rich soil by ploughing , it's also impossible to level ploughed grass land as when the sod rots it sinks and forms ridges . New grass seed needed a very firm seedbed and freshly ploughed grassland is hard to firm up enough , as I said earlier at the Teagasc beef open day at Grange research centre thisyear there were 6 plots reseeded with different systems all 6 weeks sowed , the ploughed plot was by far the worst , it was not fit to graze while all the others were fit to graze . I didn't work on any of the plots or have anything to do with them . The results were there for everybody go see.

 

[Diggerman81]

What do you suggest works best then my ground isnt compacted it just needs a new lay of grass in im having it tested for lime next week its been sprayed of just with roundup and had some box muck put on it.

 

[Kevtherev]

Ploughing done right works well
I've done thousands of acres of reseeds conventionally

 

[Kevtherev]

Another of this years leys

 

[james ds]

What do you suggest works best then my ground isnt compacted it just needs a new lay of grass in im having it tested for lime next week its been sprayed of just with roundup and had some box muck put on it.

No need to test for lime , just put lime on regardless , when sowing grass into old grass you need lime to neutralise the acid given off by decaying old grass , if I had a field like yours I'd disc Harrow twice , let dry and then a run of the power Harrow set very light with the grass seed box on sowing . What machines are available.