Coated Grass Seed

reilig

There was a little booklet in yesterday's Farmers Journal from Moregrass Ireland. In it, they details all of their various types of grass seed. One caught my eye - coated grass seed. its for overseeding. They claim that the coated grass seed is heavier than ordinary grass seed so it falls between existing grass to the soil much better than ordinary grass seed and therefore it has a much better take rate. They also claim that because the seed is coated, birds will not eat it.

This would be a definite option for me for to rejouvenate pasture and I'm seriously considering it. I have read a lot about this type of seed on uk websites and they all indicate that it is very successful.

Has anyone here got experience of coated grass seed?
Does anyone know how much more expensive it would be in comparison to ordinary grass seed??

Here's the link to the supplier:

http://www.moregrassireland.com/Coated-Seed2.html

MacraPat

Haha! Strikes me as being very similar to the concept of Fukuoka's seed balls.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP0885554.pdf
Basically a Japanese lad developed them as a means of sowing crops in no-till systems.

MoreGrass sound good but I don't know of anyone using it yet.

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

There was a little booklet in yesterday's Farmers Journal from Moregrass Ireland. In it, they details all of their various types of grass seed. One caught my eye - coated grass seed. its for overseeding. They claim that the coated grass seed is heavier than ordinary grass seed so it falls between existing grass to the soil much better than ordinary grass seed and therefore it has a much better take rate. They also claim that because the seed is coated, birds will not eat it.

This would be a definite option for me for to rejouvenate pasture and I'm seriously considering it. I have read a lot about this type of seed on uk websites and they all indicate that it is very successful.

Has anyone here got experience of coated grass seed?
Does anyone know how much more expensive it would be in comparison to ordinary grass seed??

Here's the link to the supplier:

http://www.moregrassireland.com/Coated-Seed2.html

did you see the piece of the guttler seeder i think it was called, probably a good sysatem to rejuv paddocks without tilling

reilig

vanderbadger wrote: »

did you see the piece of the guttler seeder i think it was called, probably a good sysatem to rejuv paddocks without tilling

I saw that allright. It looks like an expensive machine. They are advertising the coated seed that you can eat your pasture bare, give it 1 or 2 runs with the chain harrow, spread seed and fertilizer with an ordinary spreader and just roll it it. Its a very simple method.

Bodacious

reilig wrote: »

There was a little booklet in yesterday's Farmers Journal from Moregrass Ireland. In it, they details all of their various types of grass seed. One caught my eye - coated grass seed. its for overseeding. They claim that the coated grass seed is heavier than ordinary grass seed so it falls between existing grass to the soil much better than ordinary grass seed and therefore it has a much better take rate. They also claim that because the seed is coated, birds will not eat it.

This would be a definite option for me for to rejouvenate pasture and I'm seriously considering it. I have read a lot about this type of seed on uk websites and they all indicate that it is very successful.

Has anyone here got experience of coated grass seed?
Does anyone know how much more expensive it would be in comparison to ordinary grass seed??

Here's the link to the supplier:

http://www.moregrassireland.com/Coated-Seed2.html

Sounds like a great job Any idea on cost as compared to conventional grass seed?

bob charles

Have being reliably informed that its just marketing smoke and mirrors stuff. Try looking for someone to direct drilling grass seed @ €35 an acre and bobs ur uncle charles

sheafield

Hi all, have looked into this seed for a few weeks. A few agri shops have told me it's that seed from this company is very good. I've a field sprayed off a week now and intend to graze, Harrow like mad, lime , fert and roll. Would love to hear if anyone has done similar and what are the do's and dont's! Wondering do I need the coated seed, believe that there mg 10 mix is also very good. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

reilig

bob charles wrote: »

Have being reliably informed that its just marketing smoke and mirrors stuff.

Do you have any links to that?? Did you get it from an Irish or UK source?

Coated clover seed has been on the market for a number of years now and it definitely has a 40% better strike rate than non-coated clover seed. I never expected grass seed to have a similar strike rate but I thought that the coating would give it some advantage - especially in ground not suitable for tilling. And surely the biggest advantage of the coated seed is that the birds won't take it. Thousands of starlings have continually picked through ground that I seeded over 7 months ago. Surely a lot of seed is lost to them?

reilig

sheafield wrote: »

Hi all, have looked into this seed for a few weeks. A few agri shops have told me it's that seed from this company is very good. I've a field sprayed off a week now and intend to graze, Harrow like mad, lime , fert and roll. Would love to hear if anyone has done similar and what are the do's and dont's! Wondering do I need the coated seed, believe that there mg 10 mix is also very good. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I've done that. Last August on a 6 acre field. Just used ordinary seed though. I held back an acre pack of seed until 6 weeks after sowing. Used it to patch up and bare patches. 7 months on, I have a great cover of grass on it. I hope to take 2 cuts of silage off it. I don't know if coated seed will have much advantage on ground that has already been sprayed off??

Make sure you spread fertilizer and lime with the seed. Used 2 bags of 18-6-12 and 1 bag of granulated lime to the acre and spread it with the seed from the fertilizer spreader.

Tora Bora

I have done the graze bare followed by multiple passes of chain harrow, followed by ordinary seed plus fertilizer and lime many times. I have found it works very well, and better in spring than autumn. I also think its better to graze it in first year, than cut it. Cutting seems to drag a lot of it out of ground. I try to creep the calves into it to graze. Coat of slurry helps as well.

bob charles

reilig wrote: »

Do you have any links to that?? Did you get it from an Irish or UK source?

Coated clover seed has been on the market for a number of years now and it definitely has a 40% better strike rate than non-coated clover seed. I never expected grass seed to have a similar strike rate but I thought that the coating would give it some advantage - especially in ground not suitable for tilling. And surely the biggest advantage of the coated seed is that the birds won't take it. Thousands of starlings have continually picked through ground that I seeded over 7 months ago. Surely a lot of seed is lost to them?

An Irish source, who I would respect. I was interested in it as I direct drill allot of grassland and if it resulted in a much better take I would be using it. He might have being having me on. Buy quality grasseed what ever your doing. Its gone up €1400 for a ton of quality seed,over last year. ouch

hedgecutting eddie

local dairy man i know got coated grass seed last year ,sales man said they wud come up alot quicker , neighbour sowed with the one pass and had some normal seed left from the last job so the first few runs of the field was sown in the normal seed !!!guess which seed came up first YES the normal seed so coated seed my A*S

reilig

hedgecutting eddie wrote: »

local dairy man i know got coated grass seed last year ,sales man said they wud come up alot quicker , neighbour sowed with the one pass and had some normal seed left from the last job so the first few runs of the field was sown in the normal seed !!!guess which seed came up first YES the normal seed so coated seed my A*S

But the whole point of it isn't for reseeding, its for rejouvinating. You don't have to burn off the grass nor do you have to go over it with a one pass system, the coated seed can simply be spread with a fertilizer spreader on existing pasture or meadow that has been eaten bare or cut. The whole idea is to save the cost of tilling, one pass or stitching in etc.

I'm starting to sound like a sales rep for them now

I have a couple of bags of coated seeds ordered from them but have no costs yet. I intend doing a few acres in mid may. I'll let ye know how it works out. They could be useless, but then again it just might work.

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

I have a couple of bags of coated seeds ordered from them but have no costs yet.

Ah now lad. You must have some idea how much a bag it is when you ordered em! Does a bag do an acre??

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

Ah now lad. You must have some idea how much a bag it is when you ordered em! Does a bag do an acre??

I don't honestly know. i was in McCorry's in derrylin last week and they are reps for it. Phelim couldn't get a price on it so he said that when he does get it in he will hold me 5 bags - for 5 acres. If I'm not happy with the price I don't have to take it.

Muckit

Fair enough I'd be interested to see how you get on with it. Have you decided what mix your going for?

I'd be interested in trying out the stuff for wet land with the timothy in it. Could be a runner when I get around to reseeding a bit of grazing ground that floods

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

Fair enough I'd be interested to see how you get on with it. Have you decided what mix your going for?

I'd be interested in trying out the stuff for wet land with the timothy in it. Could be a runner when I get around to reseeding a bit of grazing ground that floods

I'd like to incorporate the Ryegrass into my pasture so it'll be the 100 mix that I choose.

hedgecutting eddie

reilig wrote: »

But the whole point of it isn't for reseeding, its for rejouvinating. You don't have to burn off the grass nor do you have to go over it with a one pass system, the coated seed can simply be spread with a fertilizer spreader on existing pasture or meadow that has been eaten bare or cut. The whole idea is to save the cost of tilling, one pass or stitching in etc.

I'm starting to sound like a sales rep for them now

I have a couple of bags of coated seeds ordered from them but have no costs yet. I intend doing a few acres in mid may. I'll let ye know how it works out. They could be useless, but then again it just might work.

mayb its just me i just think its better turning down old sod wit plough costs more but better for drainage etc ,thats just my 2 cents

johngalway

Hmm, I like the sound of these... No plough zone here (need a rock breaker ahead of it :pac:).

reilig

hedgecutting eddie wrote: »

mayb its just me i just think its better turning down old sod wit plough costs more but better for drainage etc ,thats just my 2 cents

You can't plough when you only have 2 inches of soil around here. We've no rocks, but you meet a grey sticky daub under the 2 inches of soil.
Going over it with a one pass breaks the skin on it leaving it soft for the 2 years after reseeding.

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

I don't honestly know. i was in McCorry's in derrylin last week and they are reps for it. Phelim couldn't get a price on it so he said that when he does get it in he will hold me 5 bags - for 5 acres. If I'm not happy with the price I don't have to take it.

anyone seen results from this type of job
http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/machinery/1959125

bob charles

reilig wrote: »

But the whole point of it isn't for reseeding, its for rejouvinating. You don't have to burn off the grass nor do you have to go over it with a one pass system, the coated seed can simply be spread with a fertilizer spreader on existing pasture or meadow that has been eaten bare or cut. The whole idea is to save the cost of tilling, one pass or stitching in etc.

I'm starting to sound like a sales rep for them now

I have a couple of bags of coated seeds ordered from them but have no costs yet. I intend doing a few acres in mid may. I'll let ye know how it works out. They could be useless, but then again it just might work.

But why go and spend €50 an acre on grass seed and how a half arsed job, why not get someone to direct drill it for €30 an acre and spray with Glyphosate for another €10 and have a complete job done for under a €100

reilig

bob charles wrote: »

But why go and spend €50 an acre on grass seed and how a half arsed job, why not get someone to direct drill it for €30 an acre and spray with Glyphosate for another €10 and have a complete job done for under a €100

To be honest, if I wanted to spray it, I wouldn't waste money on direct drilling. I have sprayed a couple of acres every year for the last few years, chain harrowed it and spread the seed with the fertilizer spreader. It gives great results!! I have all the machines to do the job myself so I'm not relying on anyone else to do the job for me.

johngalway

reilig wrote: »

I don't honestly know. i was in McCorry's in derrylin last week and they are reps for it. Phelim couldn't get a price on it so he said that when he does get it in he will hold me 5 bags - for 5 acres. If I'm not happy with the price I don't have to take it.

Did you get the coated seed or try it out?

mattthetrasher

i was on a farm a month ago super field of grass really thick yer man gave me his secret round up cut and bale leaving very low stuble spread grass seed with spinner and follow with 4-5000 gallons of slurry/acre he has been using this method for maybe 12-15 years the whole farm has probably been seeded this way

reilig

johngalway wrote: »

Did you get the coated seed or try it out?

The weather hasn't been good enough to do it unfortunately. I got a price on the seed though - EUR 60 per 20kg bag.

reilig

mattthetrasher wrote: »

i was on a farm a month ago super field of grass really thick yer man gave me his secret round up cut and bale leaving very low stuble spread grass seed with spinner and follow with 4-5000 gallons of slurry/acre he has been using this method for maybe 12-15 years the whole farm has probably been seeded this way

There's a long thread somewhere on boards with different variations of the above. Most would chain harrow before spreading the seed. 5000 gallons of slurry might be a bit much for it too. If there came dry weather after it, your seed may not germinate.

johngalway

reilig wrote: »

The weather hasn't been good enough to do it unfortunately. I got a price on the seed though - EUR 60 per 20kg bag.

How much would ordinary seed usually be?

vanderbadger

johngalway wrote: »

How much would ordinary seed usually be?

i think kerry agri seed is approx 60 euro a bag but if you buy 5 you get a bag free

reilig

johngalway wrote: »

How much would ordinary seed usually be?

Connacht gold is Eur 48 per acre pack (20kg)

bob charles

reilig wrote: »

Connacht gold is Eur 48 per acre pack (20kg)

you dont usually see 20kgs of grass seed. usually something around 12kg bags. If your sure they are 20kg bag your price for the coated seed would be very very cheap

bbam

Sorry to drag up an old thread lads..

Rellig... I was wondering did you use the coated grass seed and did you find it a good job?? Has anyone got a current price ??

razor8

is the coated seed still in the shed reilig?

agriman27

I bought some and spread it on a piece of ground which I levelled after it got badly poached. That was last April/may 2012. It started rainin and I never got a chance to roll or run a chain harrow on it. I was still hopeful that the covered seed would take hold as its supposed to do. But it didn't I noticed a few seedlings emerging but they got smothered quickly, doesn't look one bit different than it ever did. I think it's only a sales idea but maybe the constant rain didn't help