News & Articles

Retired ranchers introduce 2008 model of grass seed harvester

Prairie Star
By Shannon Ruckman, The Prairie Star editor
April 11, 2008

BILLINGS, Mont. - Lee and Maggie Arbuckle are unveiling a new model of their grass seed harvester this May.

“It completely integrates seed plucking, conveyance and collection in one unit on the front loader,” said Lee Arbuckle.

The couple invented the Native Seedster after struggling to harvest green needle grass seed on their Alzada, Mont., ranch.

After many years of harvesting pubscent wheat grass, western wheat grass and green needle grass using a combine and losing a good percentage of his seed, the Arbuckles decided it was time to find a new way to harvest grass seed.

“It was the green needle grass that led to my invention,” he said. “We had replanted the green needle grass on some marginal silty clay soil and it really took off. Most combiners will throw rocks at you if you ask them to cut green needle grass because it is so hard to cut.”

Some seed producers choose to swath green needle grass, let it dry and then, use a pickup attachment to harvest the seed. “This could work, but the seed tends to shatter and sometimes not fill completely,” said Arbuckle.

Other seed producers may use a stripping device to harvest the seed, but Arbuckle said he believes the Native Seedster produces the best balance of high quality seed harvesting and a lot of it using a combination of rotating brushes and combs.

“We designed it ourselves, had a prototype built using rotating brushes and combs moving in counter-rotation,” said Arbuckle. “We learned the brush and comb mechanism was pa-tentable and asked retired pro-fessor of ag engineering Dr. Bill Larsen to do a detailed design and submitted a proposal to USDA for an SBIR grant to test the feasibility of the harvester.”

The Arbuckles raised cows and sheep on their Alzada ranch until they reserved grass seed production when they retired to Billings, Mont.

They tested the harvester on several types of grasses. Those varieties included crested wheat grass, green needle grass, little blue stem grass, switchgrass and big blue stem grass with success in Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota.

“We knew we were onto something after the first USDA-funded project,” he said. “The USDA funded research and development in a second project to use air to convey seed in the simplest way.”

The Native Seedster, an attachment for front-end loader tractors, harvests grass seed by holding the plant in the proper position momentarily while moving about one to two miles per hour with the combs and plucking the seed from the plant with the brushes moving in counter rotation at a speed of six to eight miles per hour.

The seed is then sucked into a large hose that transports the seed to a trailer pulled behind the tractor.

“The trailer is good for small or chappy seed or for the producer who wants to bag the seed in the field,” explained Arbuckle. “The machine is designed so you could harvest a field a second time if you need to, but it is aggressive enough that most of the time you don't have to make a second pass over the field.”

The Native Seedster has high seed recovery percentages according to studies the quality control studies the Arbuckles have conducted, harvesting grass seed by hand and comparing to the seed recovered by the machine, on various grass species.

“There are too many variables to compare,” he said. “We do this carefully in our work. We expect to do hand harvest control to make our data more persuasive.”

Currently, the Arbuckles are targeting switchgrass with their Native Seedster studies.

“We've not measured the seed recovery on switchgrass before,” said Arbuckle. “There is not a lot of switchgrass in Montana, but it can be grown in fertile shaded areas. It is native in the Dakotas and further to the east in the tall grass prairies.”

Arbuckle said they hope to have 85 to 90 percent total seed recovery.

The Native Seedster is run by electric controls in the cab of a front-loading tractor. The controls allow the producer to speed up the brushes or combs, run the tilt like a loader for areas of wind blown or lodged spots and moving the height of the machine.

“It is easy to clean out to either change varieties or change species,” said Arbuckle. “All it takes is an air hose to clean it out in less than 20 minutes to help keep the seed pure.”

In addition, the Native Seedster allows the producer to detach the machine and use the front-end loading tractor for other farming activities throughout the year when not harvesting grass seed.

“Plus, the cost of the Seedster is less than the cost of a combine,” said Arbuckle.