Do I NEED This?

Sorry, no pictures... Yet.....

Anyway, was talking with a neighbor, and he said that he had a couple of packers that he was wanting to sell.

They are JD (I think) and are just the pointed rollers, with wood bearings and stuff, and a wood toung.

Together, they are a "set". The big one is about 8 foot wide, and it has arms on each side, that the little ones hook to. The two little ones are about 4 or 5 feet wide.

Looks to me like I could buy the whole set, and drag the 2 little ones around behind my 8 foot seeder, and then sell the bigger one?!

Lots of people up here have told me that I NEED to pack my oat ground, because I am taking it for hay... Is that true?

What do you guys think? He wants $300 for the whole thing (all 3 sections) and might come down a little...

Thanks, Bryce

when we get oats years ago, we used a drop seeder then went over the seed with a disk, spike drag and the packer. worked good. pulled a second drop seeder behind the oat seeder and laid down dry fertilizer.

If you are putting oats on tilled ground to cut for hay...Yes I would use a packer when planting.Will give you better surface for cutting...less dirt in sickle and less dirt in hay after raking.

John

We always pull a brillion packer behind the grain drill when seeding oats. I think it makes the field smother, pushes in the little annoying rocks, and makes the seed have better contact with the soil for germination. The price is not bad either for what they bring here in MN.

I would use them, not needed but helpful. A couple years ago we put our oats in for the local show. A storm came through and blew a trash barrel rolling across our freshly planted oats. For a month you could see a line where that barrel rolled across that ground, those oats were taller and better looking than the rest of the field.

Id keep the longer and sell the smaller ones. That way it is all the way across the seeder, and you don't need to build a special hitch for two.

I would suggest that you do need a cultipacker for oats, be it they are drilled or broadcast. If broadcast I like to plant them after primary tillage and the first pass with the disc harrow. Broadcast the oats, then make one pass with the disc harrow, broadcast any fine seed, then finish with the cultipacker. Most are drilled, but I have done both, always needed a cultipacker though. Fine seed, you may need to firm the seed bed prior to planting, so one of these will do that, you plant then make a final pass with one. Seed germination was always good. I'm not sure how a grain drill with the seed boxes for grasses and similar fine or small seed works, but assume it leaves them on top as the drill does its thing with the larger seed. When you run the cultipacker over it, the seed on top should have much better soil contact. I never planted hay ground with my friend before, but as long as I can remember he always packed it after planting and he sure know how to get an impressive stand of hay grasses. His fields were outstanding, and the hay which I bought quite a bit of was very nice.

What and how are you planting, drill, broadcast ? What is the soil like, lot of rocks or is it clean top soil ?

I think the reason the farmer I used to help made a separate pass with another tractor and the cultipacker, on oats and or hay ground which he always planted with a nurse/cover crop, was so you could pick the larger rocks up as you rolled the field, otherwise I am sure it would have been hitched to the drill.

I used to fuss on his fields and make them as clean on the surface as I could, no rocks to worry about with the grain head on the combine and the operator could cut lower, increasing the straw yield, one year on our field, with a little extra nitrogen the straw yield increased exactly 50% He used to tell me I did a good job and it was always nice to know what you did was appreciated, that meant the world to me.

Now lets see if this darned site will allow me to post photos again and not lose the text or my reply, the previous attempt ended with the loss of my response and all these duplicate photos from going back and forth.

In all seriousness, if its not on my end, me or anything I did, its entirely frustrating when you try to share information, photos, experience to be helpful to another person, in this case, you Bryce, an enthusiastic young man who likes these old tractors, implements, with good intention to use them LOL !

In the photos you should be able to see clearly, the difference on the surface of the ground that has been packed, and what has not been after the grain drill. You can see the larger rocks needed to be removed on the surface. I did 70 acres by hand that year, picking all the larger rocks off the fields.

I was pulling a 12' double roller Brillion, I like the double roller, it does a great jon. Also a photo of what happens even after you have checked all the bolts on one of these, one still fell out and I lost the back roller, the arm was cast steel and I was easily able to weld it, then tack welded the bolts that could fall out if loosened. Never forget that, as I had gone over the darned thing and tightened all of them snug.

Brillion was what was sold by John Deere early on. Keep it all together. I think with that hookup they are single roller packers so what would be good is put the 8' behing a grain drill and then a spike tooth harrow followed by the smaller units hooked so they cover full coverage.

Bryce I would buy them there will be years you will need them and other years not so much. I would keep them together as a set. You can always use one for parts if needed. I think the price is a little steep but that's just me. Good Luck.

I have a complete set. I use a single small one for home lawn work, behind 4 wheeler. All three behind the SH.

For oats, I double drill - two passes because I can't put down enough seed with one pass. (Feed adjustment rusted fast.) On second pass,I put down alfalfa as well as oats. Pull cultipacker behind drill. Seems to work OK for me, yields seem up with cultipacker. Surface is smoother for hayfield next season.

Maybe dump that 3500 lbs of rocks at the end each pass. Look at the compaction from your tractor. And that's on DRY ground.

Well I watched one of them sell for $1800 dollars at a sale.

I always favored pulling a cultipacker behind the grain drill even though I tried to pick off all the exposed stones fist sized and larger. Having the smaller rocks "punched down" and all the clods busted makes it so much nicer when you combine or cut the grain with a binder if you still thresh. And the firmed surface resists sheet erosion somewhat. And, if you seed the field to hay the surface can't be too smooth for all the years you'll be be mowing, raking and sweeping up the hay with a baler or field chopper pickup...No field was ever too rock and clod free no matter what you do with it. Once in a while I will see a nice field used in a no-till operation strewn with bowling ball sized stones and I wonder how the farmer who works this land can stand to look at his work.

We have a water heater tank(cut in half) on top of the packer. as you hit rocks toss them in and you still have a even compact.

You can never have to many toys.

I grow a soybean/wheat rotation using conventional tillage, and I always use a cultipacker behind the drill. Much better seed/soil contact and germination. And the rocks(which I have plenty of) are pushed down, and the ground is much more level at harvest. My equipment is very old and small, but it works for me. Tractor is a 1944 JD B, drill is a JD/Van Brunt made about 1921. Dunham cultipacker I traded for repairing a neighbors scraper blade.

This works under the same principle.Take time to prepare your ground.You'll never regret buying it.

I'd keep em together and pull it around after you drill the single roller one are a little light but you can add some rocks or something if it doesn't have a bin you could make one .

Little overkill on tractor size, plus some areas were more dense with rocks that came up, would fill the bucket in a pass or 2. For the most part I'd drop them off at each end to avoid any extra compaction. I would agree, not the most ideal situation, but the rocks have to come off. You should see the care I use in my garden when planting, I lay planks out, so as to lessen the compaction, work off those and my way out, water it good after planting, mulch with dry grass, fence it off and close the gate. No walking in there until things are ready to harvest and the soil is packed from the rains.