Article 2 // NOVEMBER 2007

Small Seed Broadcaster Halves Drilling Time

Overseeding rather than ploughing and reseeding worn out grass leys and mixed seed leys required for wild bird populations on land owned by the RSPB on the North Solway coast, has halved drilling time and reduced over all costs.

It is difficult not to become absorbed by the tranquillity of this particular RSPB reserve at Mersehead, near Dumfries, with its mix of wetland, farmland, merse and mudflats.

Land manager Eric Neilson oversees the conservation management across the 1,000ha reserve – with some assistance from volunteers. Mersehead supports internationally important numbers of wildfowl and significant breeding populations of waders and farmland passerines, such as skylark.

Around 80ha of arable rotation and improved grassland is included in the conservation management, particularly for wintering barnacle geese and larks, sparrows, finches and buntings.

 Mr Neilson describes it as a large bird table with birdseed mixes made up of cereals, linseed, oilseed rape, mustard, brassicas and grass. As a charity, the RSPB has to keep the annual land management costs down to a minimum.

Rotational ploughing ensures that between 30-50ha of land is replanted each year back into grass leys, wild bird cover or sacrificial crops. But rising costs and a desire to keep the fields fit for grazing livestock and wintering geese has led to a switch to overseeding old tired grass leys rather than reseeding them.

“Overseeding means that we can keep all the land in use,” says Mr Neilson. “Ploughing takes that particular area of land out of use for a year, which is not ideal.” 

Last year the reserve replaced an old Vicon spreader with a new Spaldings small seed Broadcaster, which is powered by a robust 12v 180w electric motor and costs only £1,200. Mr Neilson says it basically does the same job as an air seeder but it is much cheaper.

The Spaldings Broadcaster spreads accurately to 6m so is ideal for small farms needing to drill about 30ha. It has a stainless steel hopper with agitation so it keeps itself clean and does not block up.

“The applicator is simple, straightforward and easy to operate, and is very flexible in that it can be fitted to most agricultural cultivators,” says Mr Neilson. “It only takes one man about five minutes to assemble and it comes with its own brackets, although we made our own in the end to fit on the front loader of our existing tractor. The Spaldings spreader can also easily be fitted to an ATV so it’s very flexible.”

Mr Neilson explains that one of the machines most important attributes is that it spreads evenly, without having to mix in barley seed to help achieve the best spread pattern. 

“I just calibrate the spreader at a seed rate of 13.5kg/ac for overseeding at the beginning of the day and off I go. Forward speed is about 6kph,” he says.

Barnacle Geese arrive in late September and stay until the end of April, which is just when new leys are establishing. Mr Neilson says it therefore makes absolute sense to overseed as much as possible.

Around 24,000 geese arrive on the Solway Firth each autumn, with Mersehead holding up to 6,000 birds. Hay and silage are taken from the grass each year, which is then used on other RSPB reserves, which overwinter cattle.

Spaldings 12 volt Broadcaster is available from stock
under product number 16184.

For full details please visit our Online Catalogue, contact any member of our sales team, telephone: 01522 507 600 or e-mail: agsales@spaldings.co.uk