Continued efforts at pasture expansion have led me to invest in a tractor mounted seed broadcaster for planting grass seed. Initially, I had started out broadcasting seeds by hand, but this gets old very fast and trying to cover any ground area larger than a quarter acre isn't practical.
To remove the burden of hand broadcasting grass seed I first purchased a push broadcaster. This kind of broadcaster can work very well, but only on smooth level ground. Any rocks, tree roots, tree branches, or uneven ground will either stop the forward motion of the wheels or tip the entire broadcaster over.
A search for a rugged yet affordable tractor mounted seed broadcaster eventually led me to the Herd model M-12 pto-powered broadcaster. I'm very pleased with the fact that all of the parts for the gearbox, frame, and hopper are metal and everything appears to be bolted together rather than just stamped.
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| After an initial test I added an extension to the handle that opens and closes the seed gate. The extension, which is really just a long stick attached to the handle with a cotter pin, allows me to easily open and close the seed gate from my seat in the tractor. |
When I ordered the broadcaster through a local dealer the experience was less than ideal. Though it took slightly less than a week to arrive, the package they gave me turned out to only contain a portion of the broadcaster. The distributor had apparently not sent all of the parts. After another week the missing portions of the broadcaster arrived minus several of the bolts needed to assemble the device. At that point I decided not to bother with the dealer anymore and just used my own bolts.
In spite of this unpleasant experience with the distributor, I think that the Herd M-12 is an excellent and well made product that will probably last for more than a lifetime.
