One-Pass Pasture Aeration, Reseeding

One-Pass Pasture Aeration Reseeding TILLAGE EUIPMENT Miscellaneous Don Brown gets a lot done in a single pass with what he calls his BRO pasture aerator Between the 4 wavy coulters Shankpot Seeder and rear hitch he can slice furrows spread seed and pull a drag to bury seed contact and scatter manure The results make a difference for his flock of Bluefaced Leicester and Lincoln sheep “When I started my sheep flock I knew I needed quality grass for quality animals ” says Brown “I looked at ways to improve the pastures but commercial machines were hard to justify or didn’t work the way I wanted ” Brown custom-builds his BRO system for $2 500 That’s a lot less than some of the alternatives like a 4-ft wide no-till drill for around $14 000 or deep-tillage rigs that require high horsepower tractors Before building his system he read about how one farmer used a box scraper to aerate so he tried it “I turned the teeth around and made 2 passes across the pasture ” recalls Brown “I looked back and it looked ugly but it gave me the idea of mounting worn plow coulters to an old cultivator frame I liked how they sliced through the surface ” Brown decided to design an aeration/seeder combination from the ground up With the help of a neighbor who is a good welder he used 1 by 3-in tubular steel for the 2 1/2 by 6-ft frame He mounted coulters 16 to 18 in apart and put a receiver hitch on the back to let him hook on a drag “A 4-ft wide drag covers the disk slots to increase seed-to-soil contact ” says Brown “I’ll use an 8-footer in the late winter or early spring to spread manure if there is a cluster in one area ” Without down pressure on the 3-pt hitch Brown knew he would need to add weight He used 3-in angle iron to make a tray for cinder block weights “The coulters stay in the ground even when I’m turning ” says Brown “I went with wave coulters because they open up the ground more than straight coulters ” To scatter seed Brown avoided motors and went with a vibration driven Yeoman’s Shankpot seeder The Australian made seed box costs around $600 and is designed for use behind a plow Dial up seed slots of 5/8-in to 1 1/16-in allow about any size seed to vibrate out of the seed box onto an 18-in disk that scatters it behind the coulters A patented jigger system prevents seed from clogging up the seed drop “I spread about 8 lbs of seed every 3 acres ” says Brown “I mostly use pasture mixes but I will add some larger seed like wheat or rye to visually check that seed is falling ” For another visual check of seed getting spread Brown cut a slot in the side of the seed box facing the tractor and covered it in Plexiglas “I have 36 acres of pasture split into 10 paddocks all with water ” says Brown “I try to use my aerator/seeder 5 times a year usually when I move my sheep flock out of a paddock It works especially nice after a rain ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Don Brown 31024 Township Rd 11 Fresno Ohio 43824 ph 330 763-0494; don pllc@gmail com

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