# Grain Drill With Grass



## SuperDog (Mar 16, 2005)

Can someone tell me what the advantage is to having a grass seed box on a grain drill? Can't you plant grass in the other boxes? Sorry if this is a dumb question... I don't have any experience with grain drills and am looking for one right now. 

Thanks
Mike


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## DaleK (Sep 23, 2004)

Some people will mix grass seed in with their cover crop seed but it's not always very accurate, particularly with smaller seeds like alfalfa, and the grass seed generally doesn't need to go as deep as the cover crop seed. Since most of the seed is pretty expensive you want it to be as accurate as possible and have as much chance of living.

Some of the coarser grass seeds (brome, etc.) won't go through the grass box very well so sometimes you have to do a bit of both anyway.


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## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

the truth is it is small seed box not necessary a grass seed box, (and like said used for alfalfa or switch grass, and other very small seeds),
most grain drills can not with accuracy or cut back to a slow enough feed rate to plant them accuracy or at the correct rate in the normal feed cups.



there are many different types of grass seed. some is a micro sized small hard shell, (that is what that mini box is for, but most native grasses are a fluffy fuzzy seed that will not flow through a normal grain drill, for that they now use a feed that looks like a saw blade with teeth that will grab and pull it in to the cup, 

about the only way I have found to plant the "native" seeds with a grain drill is mix the seed with oats or other grains that will feed and it will keep them from bridging up in the box and let them flow through the feed cups, on some seeds one may have to mix up to 3/4 of grain and 1/4 of grass seed, other 1/2 and 1/2, since many times the native grass seeds will need a year to germinate the grain can work as a cover crop, I find oats work well, (the government programs I do not think let one do this any more, or last time I checked in to it,), and you have to use a special grass drill to plant if it is government cost shared, or a government backed program,


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