Published 13 January 2012

A mild summer so far, and above average rainfall is shaping up to be a big season for pasture growth. With growth, comes seed production and a good opportunity to do some seed harvesting for your own property. Harvesting and spreading your own seed is a cheap way to build biodiversity and resilience in your pastures.

Watershed has a grass seed harvester available to the community. Called the “Grasshopper”, this simple brush harvester uses nylon brushes (similar to those of a road sweeper) to literally “brush” the seed off the stems of the plant as they ripen. This means that pastures can be repeat harvested as more seed ripens. The detached seed is then carried into a hopper via the airflow generated by the brush.  

The Grasshopper weighs about 700kg and attaches to a standard tow ball hitch on any 4WD vehicle and towed as one would tow a trailer. When harvesting, the machine is then swung out to the side of the vehicle to facilitate harvesting seed that has not previously been passed over by the towing vehicle. The brush is belt driven, with power supplied by a 5.5hp petrol motor. Raising and lowering of the brush height is carried out via hydraulic rams.

The Grasshopper is effective on a wide range of species including those which have light fluffy seeds such as Danthonia spp. (Wallaby Grass), Dicanthium sericeum (Silky Blue Grass) and Bothriochloa macra (Red Grass). It also works well on Paspalidium spp. (eg; Warrego) and Chloris (Windmill Grass) where the fingers of the brush neatly strip the seed from the stem. It can also be used with reasonable success on Themeda australis (Kangaroo Grass) where the coarse brush is used to remove the whole floret from the stem. The main limitation of the GrassHopper is with very low or lodged (fallen down) crops which can happen with Warrego Grass, or with very tall stands such as Austrostipa aristiglumis (Plains Grass) which can grow as tall as two metres.  

Contact Watershed for bookings

Some info & Tips from Col Seis...

Watershed asked local Pasture Cropping and native grass consultant Colin Seis, for some tips on harvesting and spreading grass seed. Colin now speaks to farmers all over Australia, and just next week is travelling to Kansas to speak at a No-Till Cropping Conference. Here's what he had to say:

• Collecting and spreading your own seed is a cheap way to build biodiversity and resilience in your pastures.
• Monitor your pastures to check for seed ripeness and to determine the best time to harvest. Mixed native pastures will have seed ripening at different times, so you might need to run over the paddock with the harvester a few times.
• Many seeds are ripe when they are hard to bite on (like a wheat seed).
• Don’t be fooled by empty Kangaroo Grass seed heads, which stay on the plant long after the black-awned seeds have fallen out onto the ground.
• Red Grass is ready when seeds fall off into your hand when you run your fingers up the seed head.
• Spreading your harvested seed can be a simple throwing harvested seed off the back of a ute on a windy day. (Another method is “seed balls”, see links below and on You Tube)
• If you’re planning to also pasture crop the paddock, it’s a good idea to broadcast the harvested seed first, then slash or heavy graze the paddock prior to drilling in the cereal. Slashing, grazing and drilling over your broadcast seed helps with seed-soil contact and germination.
• If storing your harvested seed for a later date, you’ll need to spread it out on a tarp to air out and dry properly. Otherwise the seed may heat up and become mouldy (i.e. start composting), and lose viability.
• You may find the seed takes a year or more to germinate in your pastures.
• The Grass Hopper can harvest around 15kg/hr from grasses like Kangaroo or Red Grass.

For more information on...

Native Grasses, head to Stipa – Native Grasses Association www.stipa.com.au

Pasture Cropping head to www.pasturecropping.com

Colin Seis, speaking at a Kansas symposium (USA) head to http://www.notill.org/past_conf/WC12/aim_12.htm

Seed balls, head to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_ball

http://milkwood.net/2011/08/29/getting-serious-about-seed-balls/

http://seedball.com/

Thinking of selling some of your seed? Head to our resources page to find a list of Australian Native Grass Seed Suppliers.