Native plant production of the full spectrum of native grass species

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We are Lee and Maggie Arbuckle. Years ago Maggie and I returned to the heart of the short grass prairie in Montana to put the pieces of Arbuckle Ranch back together. Arbuckle Ranch had started in the 1800s and steadily grew with sweat equity, savings, and cost conscious innovation. Working with my parents we bought out the interests of that and other generations. Arbuckle Ranch nurtured and spun off Native Seedsters, Inc.

We leased out the ranch, reserving some grass seed production and conservation uses. We reseeded some marginal ground to a good native grass species that enthusiastically produced high value native seed. However a combine shattered seed and was plugged up by awns. From this predicament the idea for the Arbuckle Native Seedster was born.

We talked to grass seed producers and range scientist Brian Sindelar before having a machine shop build a crude model with counter-rotating bats and brush. In those years Maggie and I were with the United States Agency for International Development in Honduras developing new products and services for agricultural and rural development, so experimentation fell to our teenage son Anthony Arbuckle. He used his judgment, long distance discussions with me in Honduras, and suggestions from ranch lessee Leroy Dean. But most native grass leaned away, or was nudged away, or slipped off the bats, or dislodged seed fell to the ground before being drawn into the collection chamber. We kept scratching our heads.

Maggie and I returned from Honduras to semi-retire not to spend five years developing a seed harvester. But the grass stand was still producing seed. Ranching and overseas development had made us problem solvers, so we kept experimenting. Added combs to the bats to positively engage seed stems for brushing and bingo!...seed recovery jumped! A patent search found no similar cooperating brush comb technology was patented.

Bill Larsen, Ph.D. retired chairman of Agricultural and Mechanical Engineering at Montana State University designed a small prototype. Our son Andrew Arbuckle, major network film and video editor, used high speed video (HSV) to analyze seed dislodgement and seed flight pattern and thereafter HSV played a key role in accelerating R & D. Range scientist Brian Sindelar, PhD tested the effects of different variables on seed recovery.

Good results led to an award from the USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to develop the seed technology. More USDA/SBIR awards and the Montana SBIR support program provided were crucial. We assembled a multi-disciplinary team: range scientist Brian Sindelar, PhD, design engineer Wade Wolf, production specialist Dale Detrick of MT Manufacturing Extension Center, pneumatics specialist Paul Solt, and other occasional consultants. Dave Stoltenberg and Montana Business Incubator in Billings provided office facilities and steadily champions the harvest technology.
An intense five years R & D program, including field testing on a spectrum of difficult to harvest seed species in three states, prepared the Native Seedsters™ for the market. From the start the team strived for a simple, low maintenance, durable machine to mount on a common farm tractor of 80 hp or more. A complex Seedster could have been ready in a couple of years to harvest nasella and stipa species. The design of simplicity and adjustability isn’t easy. One breakthrough came when Maggie suggested the comb over brush configuration. This eliminated interdependence of operating settings.

Calculate the advantage of using the Seedster
to collect difficult to harvest native grass seeds.

We insisted on a simple adjustable design that recovered a higher percentage of potential seed from the full spectrum of difficult to harvest seed species. Different brush and comb rpm, brush filaments and comb shapes are effective with different native plants.

The Seedster may not harvest all native prairie grasses, but it hasn't yet encountered a species it can’t harvest. Led by Dr. Sindelar and Drew King, the Native Seedsters team is examining seed harvestability of all economically significant native perennial grasses in the 17 states of the Western U.S. This work is funded by a grant from the State of Montana Board of Research and Commercialization. Finding: Panicle species for which the Seedster was designed make up over 80% of all species. The Seedster will encourage balance of panicle and spike inflorescence species in reclamation seedings.

We pledge to listen closely to seed producers needs, to help expand native plant production of the full spectrum of native grass species that nature gave us, and make more native vegetation available for reseeding. The question is what other challenging seeds can be harvested with revolutionary Seedster technology.