There should be a pasturing or grazing community to ask such a question, but I suppose gardening and landscaping is as close as I can get.
I am trying to improve a few acres of pasture (for sheep), but I don't have access to anything expensive and fancy like a no-till drill. I read up on frost-seeding, and so I scattered my seed over the existing pasture on several days from mid-Feb to mid-March. But I also hear it doesn't work too well on sandy soils, and that's what I think I might have, to a degree. Plus I'm worried the existing stand is too thick in many places for a seed to find the soil.
So I'm looking for additional options to increase my germination rate. One idea is to wait for some warm late March days when the soil is really soft, and turn my flock onto a paddock early. There won't be much for them to find, but they'll be excited, and hopefully will spend the day tramping around and using their hooves to push some of that seed into the soft soil.
My kid actually just suggested a new idea and I want to put it out there for comment. She asked, "Daddy, why not just wait for those warm soft-soil days and then drive your tractor all over the pasture? Wouldn't those heavy tires press some seed into the soil?" Hmmpphh. Didn't think of that.
My JD tractor weighs about 8000 lbs and that's mostly sitting on the two big back wheels. The tires are going bald, though, so I may not get that much indentation on the soil, but if the soil is soft it'll squish it some at least. Would that not help get some better seed-soil contact?
Thoughts? Trust the frost-seeding alone? Add in the sheep hooves? Give the tractor a few runs over it? All three?