Kasco eco drill 72 inch
- Thread starter TreeDaddy
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I have the Kasco no-till versadrill. Mine is only 4' with 9" spacing. I'm not sure how much of this applies to the Ecodrill but you can compare them and see what applies:
I absolutely love the seed metering system. It works very well with both individual seeds and mixes. There isn't much you can't put through it. The chart they provide is a starting point, but you really have to calibrate. Once calibrated for a mix, it works well.
Seed depths is more of an art than science. With my versa drill they want you to lengthen or shorten the toplink to adjust seed depth. The problem is that it redistributes weight from the cultipacker to the openers. I found that in order to get sufficient depth with some seeds, the cultipacker did not close the seed rows. Also, the seed metering system is driven by the cultipacker wheel so that if the cultipacker contact is spotty, so is seeding.
Another issue is the fact that the unit sticks out so far behind the tractor. I found that if I adjusted the top link so that I had sufficient pressure on the cultipacker when in use, it was only a few inches off the ground when lifted for transport. On uneven ground when you lift the drill to make a turn, the cultipacker can hit the ground during the turn. This can dislodge the chain that drives the seed metering system if you hit too hard.
I solved the two problems above by buying a hydraulic toplink. I put a short length of chain between the toplink and the connection to the drill. This lets me shorten the top link lifting the cultipacker high off the ground for transport. Then when I'm ready to plant and I drop the drill, I lengthen the toplink so that there is some slack in the chain. The drill is now towed behind the tractor following the contour of the ground like a tow-behind drill and does not skip spots on uneven terrain like any 3pt drill. Since the drill now "floats", the cultipacker fully rests on the ground during planting and many issues go away. These drills are not heavy like the big-boy drills and don't have a wheel or other mechanism to limit depth. I now control depth by adding 5 gal buckets full of cement or sand to the frame as needed. The amount of depth depends on my soil conditions which change with my heavy clay. The amount of weight I add, if any, adjusts the depth. It is more of an art than science.
The last big downside on mine is seed tube clogging. Mine has mud scrapers on the openers and it does not like heavy trash. Debris often gets caught between the mud scrapers and the openers. This builds up and eventually blocks the opening of the planting shoe. Seed then builds up in the tube on that row and does not get planted. I have to stop regularly and unclog the tubes. Not all tubes clog equally. Some seem never to clog and others clog frequently. I can't figure out why. If I were buying another I would not get one with mud scrapers. If it is muddy enough to need them I shouldn't be planting anyway. This is one problem for which I have not found a solution.
I bought mine used for 3K and put a few hundred into it for refurbishing some broken parts. I couldn't justify the cost of a big-boy drill (great plains, tye,...). For me the Versadrill was well worth the cost, but it is certainly not as nice as the big boy drills.
Hope this provides some insight...
By the way, if you search the threads for Kasco and/or Versadrill you will find some of my old threads with more detail.
Thanks,
Jack
I absolutely love the seed metering system. It works very well with both individual seeds and mixes. There isn't much you can't put through it. The chart they provide is a starting point, but you really have to calibrate. Once calibrated for a mix, it works well.
Seed depths is more of an art than science. With my versa drill they want you to lengthen or shorten the toplink to adjust seed depth. The problem is that it redistributes weight from the cultipacker to the openers. I found that in order to get sufficient depth with some seeds, the cultipacker did not close the seed rows. Also, the seed metering system is driven by the cultipacker wheel so that if the cultipacker contact is spotty, so is seeding.
Another issue is the fact that the unit sticks out so far behind the tractor. I found that if I adjusted the top link so that I had sufficient pressure on the cultipacker when in use, it was only a few inches off the ground when lifted for transport. On uneven ground when you lift the drill to make a turn, the cultipacker can hit the ground during the turn. This can dislodge the chain that drives the seed metering system if you hit too hard.
I solved the two problems above by buying a hydraulic toplink. I put a short length of chain between the toplink and the connection to the drill. This lets me shorten the top link lifting the cultipacker high off the ground for transport. Then when I'm ready to plant and I drop the drill, I lengthen the toplink so that there is some slack in the chain. The drill is now towed behind the tractor following the contour of the ground like a tow-behind drill and does not skip spots on uneven terrain like any 3pt drill. Since the drill now "floats", the cultipacker fully rests on the ground during planting and many issues go away. These drills are not heavy like the big-boy drills and don't have a wheel or other mechanism to limit depth. I now control depth by adding 5 gal buckets full of cement or sand to the frame as needed. The amount of depth depends on my soil conditions which change with my heavy clay. The amount of weight I add, if any, adjusts the depth. It is more of an art than science.
The last big downside on mine is seed tube clogging. Mine has mud scrapers on the openers and it does not like heavy trash. Debris often gets caught between the mud scrapers and the openers. This builds up and eventually blocks the opening of the planting shoe. Seed then builds up in the tube on that row and does not get planted. I have to stop regularly and unclog the tubes. Not all tubes clog equally. Some seem never to clog and others clog frequently. I can't figure out why. If I were buying another I would not get one with mud scrapers. If it is muddy enough to need them I shouldn't be planting anyway. This is one problem for which I have not found a solution.
I bought mine used for 3K and put a few hundred into it for refurbishing some broken parts. I couldn't justify the cost of a big-boy drill (great plains, tye,...). For me the Versadrill was well worth the cost, but it is certainly not as nice as the big boy drills.
Hope this provides some insight...
By the way, if you search the threads for Kasco and/or Versadrill you will find some of my old threads with more detail.
Thanks,
Jack
I just bought 6' eco drill this year and planted corn soybeans and vetch/alyce clover All came up and are doing great Have to play with unit to get depth right but not a big deal Definitely need to calibrate as seed chart is not spot on Best thing Ive ever bought. I used to spend hours tilling ground
wango tango
5 year old buck +
I'm interested in a drill myself. Been looking hard at the RTP Outdoors Genesis no till drill. Looks very nice.....but I dont know enough about these things to really understand how it stacks up.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
My concern would be the weight. The way the big-boy drills work is that they have enough weight to cut through soil to the maximum planting depth pretty much regardless of soil conditions. Depth limiting wheels are then used to set the depth to something less than that. My kasco has no such setup. It does not have enough weight or depth limiting wheels. Kasco says to change the angle of the drill using the top-link to increase or decrease depth. That does not work well, because more weight on the openers means less on the cultipacker and vice versa. Setting depth is more of an art than science with mine. This may or may not be similar. I just noticed the weight was a bit light.
Thanks,
jack
wango tango
5 year old buck +
Jack, how much does your kasco weigh? The 5 foot genesis is 2600 lbs. Wasn't sure how that compared.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
My Kasco is a 4' and only ways about 700 lbs without adding weight to the frame. It has 5 rows so that is 150 lbs/opener and maybe I can get up to 200 if I add weight. I think the Genesis pdf I looked at said the 5' drill had 8 rows so if your 2600 lbs is right that would be about 325 lbs/opener. Definitely more than my kasco.
Is it enough to get consistent depth with all soil conditions? Maybe, I don't know. I do know that my little versadrill goes plenty deep to plant soybeans and corn in the spring with my clay soils. Because it does not have a depth limiting wheel, I have to mess with weight to get the depth right with the given soil conditions. I've tried to plant in the summer with my kasco. With my clay in dry conditions, it could not get proper depth for beans or corn. Of course, we don't plant them in the summer. If we are planting for fall, most of the seeds we use require little if any depth.
It sounds to me like the Genesis is certainly a step up from my little Kasco. I have not seen the price. I paid about $3K for my kasco used. I doubt if there is a used market for Genesis yet and the used market for Kasco was thin when I bought mine. The problem with no-till drills for food plotting is usually the cost. If you are not using it to make money, it is pretty hard to justify the cost of most no-till drills.
I would look at weight per opener and compare the price to the used farm class drills. My little Kasco is workable for food plots but is challenging. My biggest challenge that I have still not solved is debris building up between the openers and mud scrapers and clogging the planting shoes. I doubt other drills have this issue.
Thanks,
Jack
Is it enough to get consistent depth with all soil conditions? Maybe, I don't know. I do know that my little versadrill goes plenty deep to plant soybeans and corn in the spring with my clay soils. Because it does not have a depth limiting wheel, I have to mess with weight to get the depth right with the given soil conditions. I've tried to plant in the summer with my kasco. With my clay in dry conditions, it could not get proper depth for beans or corn. Of course, we don't plant them in the summer. If we are planting for fall, most of the seeds we use require little if any depth.
It sounds to me like the Genesis is certainly a step up from my little Kasco. I have not seen the price. I paid about $3K for my kasco used. I doubt if there is a used market for Genesis yet and the used market for Kasco was thin when I bought mine. The problem with no-till drills for food plotting is usually the cost. If you are not using it to make money, it is pretty hard to justify the cost of most no-till drills.
I would look at weight per opener and compare the price to the used farm class drills. My little Kasco is workable for food plots but is challenging. My biggest challenge that I have still not solved is debris building up between the openers and mud scrapers and clogging the planting shoes. I doubt other drills have this issue.
Thanks,
Jack
Freeborn
5 year old buck +
Hi Jack,
I just purchased a used 4' Versa drill so I hope you don't mind but I will probably reach out to you. Your comment about debris clogging the planting shoes, are you mowing your fields prior to planting. I have a flail mower and plan on mowing my corn stalks as well as beans. Hopefully that helps.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I've tried all kinds of things. First, I don't plant corn by itself. I plant beans with a light mix of corn in them. I plant the corn for vertical cover not cobs and the cobs are long gone by the time the season hits. I also surface broadcast a cover crop of Crimson Clover, PTT, and Winter Rye into my standing beans. By Feb, all of my turnips are usually gone or the deer have plenty of mast crop instead. So, I typically mow the corn stalks in February so they lay on the ground and the microbes from soil contact speed decomposition. Because my clay soil is so low in OM, it can tend to glaze and cause problems. So, I run a tiller set very high. It terminates any leftover turnips before they can bolt, breaks any crusting, and does not really bother the WR or CC much. None of these really solve the issue. After each pass, I pretty much get out and check my tubes for clogging.
I have come to the conclusion that dead vegetation matter is worse than live. For example, one of the things I do with the drill is this. When a clover field get weedy after 7 years or so, I can get a few more years out of it by hitting it with 1 qt/acre glyphosate and then immediately drilling GHR or cereal into the clover. The gly top-kills the clover giving the GHR or cereal time to germinate and get a little ahead of the clover. Timing is important and you need good rain and cool evenings in the forecast. The clover then bounces back and fills in around the GHR and cereal. Grasses are killed by the gly and I can usually get 3 years more out of the clover before rotation is needed.
The point here is that when I do this, the drill never clogs. Drilling into the live clover field works great.
I believe mud scrappers are an option on the Versadrill. Since I bought mine used, they were not an option for me. They are welded on but I'm tempted to cut them off. They are intended to scrape mud from the openers. Well, if the openers are picking up mud, the field is too wet for me to plant anyway, so they don't do much good. It is generally dead debris that gets caught between the openers and the mud scrapers. This builds up and eventually gets under the planting shoe stopping seed flow. If your unit doesn't have mud scrapers, you may not have this issue.
I'm not sure if you read in my other posts, I solved many of the issues with a hydraulic top-link and a short chain between it and the drill. This does several things. The cultipacker sticks out so far behind the tractor, it doesn't provide more than a couple inches of ground clearance with my tractor when the toplink is set for planting. Shortening the top-link for transport and making turns when planting solves this and then I lengthen it when I set the drill down to plant. Another issue I had was that the manual says to lengthen or shorten the toplink to change planting depth. Well if I adjusted the planting depth correctly, it took pressure off the cultipacker and put more on the openers to get more depth so the seed didn't get covered. If I set it so the cultipacker had enough pressure to close the rows, it did not drill deep enough. The chain solves this an another problem all 3-pt drills have. They skip spots on uneven terrain. When I set the drill down to plant I lengthen the toplink enough so the chain relaxes. The drill then "floats" behind the tractor like a tow-behind drill. Since the drill conforms to the ground, there is even pressure between the openers and the cultipacker. I then add weight to the frame as needed to get the depth I want. The amount I need to add changes based on my soil conditions.
That hydraulic top-link solved a lot of things for me and it is also great for letting a bushhog or mower float. In addition, it makes hookup easier and quicker.
You may use the drill quite differently since you may be planting different crops with different techniques and strategies up north.
Thanks,
Jack
Freeborn
5 year old buck +
Thanks for the good advise. I have not spent any time on the unit but will be at the farm this weekend and plan to clean and inspect the unit. The first time I use the unit will be this fall when I drill Winter Wheat into my clover plot. Wheat should be pretty easy compared to corn, its a good start.
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