Min-till drill

I have a Great Plains 3P600 (min-till compact seeder) and have been using it to plant the past few years with pretty good success. I mow, disc, cultipack, and then use the seeder to plant. Each time I plant oats/sorghum - I've been happy with the results - though it's quite a time-consuming process.

If I'm planting on a food plot with minimum weeds/plants that was tilled the year prior - do I need to continue the disc/cultipacking steps?

I ask because I planted oats in very dry soil last weekend and I'm slightly concerned about putting seeds into dry soil if the rain forecasted for this week doesn't pan out. Curious if I might have lost out on some moisture retained in the soil by discing it prior. Soil is mostly clay loam.

I've planted many years into dry soil anticipating rains. One year it was mid Oct. and no measurable rain came until mid December. the plots looked great by the closing of season.

As long as the seed is covered you should be good to go until you get rain. Better in the ground than in the bag.

Yes. I've learned just go ahead and "dust it in". It will come up. I've had some planted in early October sit until December and come up thick. I'd rather wait later than plant too early, have the wheat come up then dry up or get hit by grasshoppers/worms.

I have the Landpride 3P606NT which is made by Great Plains. I usually use the almost identical process that you do on my main duck plot. I have mowed and then no-tilled oats on several deer plots without discing and had good success. I have even no-tilled extra seed into non-mowed pasture with a good germination where the coulters got a good bite in the ground.

I agree that you will loose some moisture when you disc/cultivate before drilling. My major concern when planting is that there is just enough moisture for the seed to sprout and it doesn’t get a rain for several weeks and burns up. I had rather plant in dry ground and wait on the rain. The seed will remain dormant without moisture. I planted several weeks ago with the prediction that it was going to rain, which didn’t happen. Part of my plot was just moist enough to get a sprout and it is looking stressed right now.