Billings, Montana -made harvester from Native Seedster designed for native grasses

Lee Arbuckle, was stumped. He was trying to harvest green needle grass seed on his family ranch near Alzada, but his socks were doing a better job of collecting the wild seed than his farm equipment.

That’s the problem with wild grass, Arbuckle said recently; the burrs and tendrils that allow it to spread so well by hitching a ride on an animal’s haunch or floating with the wind also make it very difficult to feed into conventional farm machinery.

His frustration got Arbuckle thinking. What if there was a way of pulling the wild seed from the plant instead of cutting it? A farmer could then pluck the seed with a firm mechanical grasp, leaving less to fall to the ground.

That led to Arbuckle’s one-of-a-kind Native Seedster http://www.nativeseedsters.com/ , a specialized harvester manufactured in Billings that could change the way seed farmers harvest native grass. The grass is a premium-priced crop used to reclaim land damaged by forest fire, mining, road equipment and over-farming.

By TOM LUTEY
Of The Gazette Staff

Full Story: http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/05/31/news/business/18-billings.txt