Both work. Your ground decides which one to use, not the drill and not whoever is selling it. Till first when you need to kill heavy sod or weeds or break up a crusted surface. Drill straight in on waterways, slopes, thin pasture, and dry spring seedings, where holding soil and moisture matters most. Either way, kill the weeds before you plant and make sure the seed goes in at the right depth.
This page is written for food plots, prairie, pollinator strips, waterways, and pasture, not corn and beans. The soil science is the same. The stakes are different. A row-crop field gets replanted next spring. A prairie stand is the stand you live with.
Neither one fits every site. Tilled seeding means working the ground first with a disc, drag, or tiller to kill what is growing and loosen the surface. No-till seeding skips that step. The drill cuts a narrow slot through sod, residue, or stubble, drops seed in at a set depth, and closes it behind.
We built the Dew Drop Drill to plant both ways, so the choice comes down to your ground. Here is how we would sort it out.
| Your situation | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy sod or established weeds you need gone | Till first, or burn down, then drill | Seed drilled into a weedy stand is planted into competition it will lose. |
| Crusted or compacted surface | Till first | A drill will not fix a hardpan. That takes mechanical work first. |
| Food plot on open, level ground | Either | Worked ground gives you a clean start. No-till saves trips and holds moisture. |
| Waterways, ditch banks, sloped ground | No-till | Loosened soil there is the soil that leaves in the next hard rain. |
| Thickening a thin pasture or existing stand | No-till | Tilling it destroys the stand you are trying to improve. |
| Dry spring seeding | No-till | Undisturbed soil takes in more water and loses less to evaporation. |
Two situations neither method fixes. On ground steeper than about 3:1, the Tallgrass Prairie Center advises against drill seeding at all, because drills slide sideways and bury the seed. And if you have sixty flat acres and a full-size drill you can borrow, use the full-size drill. We would rather tell you that now than after you buy.
The twelve offset discs adjust to 0, 10, or 20 degrees and cut up to three inches. The optional Triple Tine Kit swaps them for three rows of harrow tines. The right setup for tilled ground depends on your soil, so call the shop at (712) 264-1186 before your first pass and we will walk through it with you. The seed boxes are ground driven, so your rate follows the wheel, not your travel speed, in loose ground or firm.
Tilled ground is already open, so the discs do not need to bite the way they do in sod. Start with them set flat for a shallow pass, the same light setting we suggest for interseeding, and check your depth after the first few feet.
On most of the ground this drill was built for, the soil you keep is worth more than the seedbed you would make.
It holds the ground. Soil that stays covered resists wind and water. NRCS practice standard 329 spells out the mechanism: no-till increases infiltration, cuts runoff, and keeps sediment on site. Till a waterway in April and you may find a good share of it in the road ditch by June.
It keeps the moisture. Undisturbed soil takes water in faster and loses less to evaporation. Going into a dry May, that decides whether the seed you paid for has anything to work with.
It keeps the soil structure. USDA NRCS is plain about it: tillage breaks down soil structure, reduces infiltration, and leaves soil easier to erode. On a planting you will not redo next year, that matters.
It is one trip. Disc, drag, seed, and cultipack is four trips across a half-acre strip. Most people skip the strip instead. One pass is the difference between planting it and leaving it in brome.
A broadcaster throws seed on top and leaves it to weather and birds. A drill puts it at a set depth and closes the ground over it, tilled or not. The Tallgrass Prairie Center lists drill seeding as the preferred method on level ground. Most native seed wants to go in shallow, around a quarter to a half inch for warm-season grasses, and a drill is how you hold that depth across a whole planting.
Weeds decide more plantings than drills do. NRCS lists controlling competing vegetation as one of the four jobs of seedbed preparation.
Tillage kills what is growing, but it also turns up a fresh seedbed for weed seed right alongside yours. No-till leaves that weed seed buried but gives up tillage as a tool, so it leans on herbicide. Penn State notes residual grass herbicide rates may need to go up 10 to 25 percent under heavy residue, and Iowa State points out that thick residue can blunt those applications.
Either way, the work happens before you seed. Kill it first, then plant. No drill fixes a weedy seedbed, ours included.
We built it because we could not buy a drill that would plant the ground we wanted planted: the waterway, the fence line, the back corner of a timber plot. We have been planting that kind of ground for more than twenty years. A full-size drill needs a tractor and a trailer and will not turn around in a plot you can walk across in a minute.
The Dew Drop Drill plants into a firmed, tilled seedbed or straight into sod, residue, and stubble. It is three feet wide. Twelve adjustable offset discs open the ground, ten spring harrow tines cover the seed, and twin ground-driven seed boxes handle everything from fluffy warm-season natives to small seed and food plot mixes. It sells direct from the shop in Spencer, Iowa for $9,395 plus shipping.
It pulls behind an ATV or UTV, so the worked food plot, the waterway, and the back corner all get planted instead of skipped. If you are sizing a machine for small ground, start with how to choose a seed drill for small acreage.
Call the shop at (712) 264-1186 or send an order request. We will tell you straight whether it fits your ground. See the full specifications.
Yes, as long as the ground is firm. A no-till drill plants into a worked seedbed fine. The risk in loose soil is depth, so roll or cultipack it first, or let a rain settle it, then do the footprint test before you drill.
Not always. On open, level ground, either method works. Till if you need to kill heavy sod or weeds. Drill straight in if the ground is clean, sloped, or dry, or if you want to save the trips.
If it is loose, yes, or wait for rain to settle it. If your footprint sinks more than about half an inch, it is too loose to drill.
It was designed for ATVs and is also pulled by UTVs, lawn and garden tractors, and standard agricultural implements. On hilly ground, use an ATV or UTV with at least a 450cc engine. The coupler takes a 1-7/8 inch ball. Many newer UTVs come with a 2 inch ball, which will not seat in it, so check yours before the drill arrives. More on that in what size ATV or UTV you need to pull a seed drill.
