He Uses His Baler To Reseed Pastures

He Uses His Baler To Reseed Pastures BALERS Balers 24-5-9 "Over the years this idea has made a big difference in improving the pastures on our ranch," says Frank La Macchia, Gonzales, Calif., who injects clover and other grass seed into the bale chamber on his small square baler as he bales. He later feeds the bales to his cattle on pasture, scattering them around on particularly dry areas. The cattle either eat the bales and redeposit the seed onto other parts of the pasture, or they trample it into the ground. Either way, the seed generally germinates. A small plastic hopper bolts to the top of La Macchia's New Holland 500 baler. A pair of rubber tubes run from the bottom of the hopper through holes cut into the baler, just ahead of where hay reaches the bale chamber. A screw auger mounts inside the bottom of the hopper and an extra "star wheel" is mounted on the bale chamber. A steel shaft connects the wheel to the screw. Every time the baler's plunger pushes forward it turns the star wheel, which rotates the screw and causes the seed to fall through the tubes and into the bale chamber. "It works like a charm and is a cost efficient way to improve pastures. We don't have to do anything extra because we have to feed our cattle anyway," says La Macchia. "It works just like in nature - cattle eat part of the seed, but most of it gets stomped into the ground. We use it mainly in areas where it's difficult to reseed, such as on ridges and rolling pasture. We've been using this idea for seven years and every year our pastures get better. We bale in the spring and feed the bales in the fall right before our rainy season. We seed a mixture of annuals and perennials, including four or five different kinds of clovers, two kinds of vetches, brome and other grasses. "In the fall we go to the pasture with a pickup or wagon and break the bales apart, spreading flakes of hay every 10 ft. or so in a row. We spread the bales in barren areas or wherever the grass is short. We also spread them on roadsides and barren banks. When the rains come the seed will stay wet because it's under the hay." He says the same idea would work with round or big square balers. "The hopper on a round baler could be designed to run off an electric motor operated by the tractor's 12-volt battery." He adds seed at a rate of about 2 lbs. per ton of hay. The hopper can hold 50 lbs. of seed so he can bale 25 tons of hay before he has to refill it. "We tried using a meter system like the ones found on grain drills," says La Macchia. "However, we found that clover seed is so small it gets through the meters even when they're stopped. By changing the position of a sliding shield mounted above the screw we can control how much seed falls into it." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Frank La Macchia, 33795 Gloria Rd., Gonzales, Calif. 93926 (ph 831 675-3841; fax 1917).

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