Tar River SAYA-507 No Till Drill
- Thread starter breddick
- Start date
Calibration is easy. Load some seed. Set the number. Put ziplock bags over a few of the seed tubes. Drive a specific distance. Count seed. Do the math.
One thing I found initially was the each gear of each row was manually placed along the rod that spins to churn out seed. Depending on who put the thing together they might not all match up perfectly. It's an easy adjustment but make sure all gear spacing is identical before calibrating. I couldn't figure out why my initial calibration varied by maybe 30-40% between rows!!! Then noted the gears weren't matched well. Super easy micro adjustment and then the calibration numbers came back to within 10%. Hard to put into words but I think if you were looking at it, it would make sense. This adjustment should really be a one time deal. No reason they should ever move after being installed.
One thing I found initially was the each gear of each row was manually placed along the rod that spins to churn out seed. Depending on who put the thing together they might not all match up perfectly. It's an easy adjustment but make sure all gear spacing is identical before calibrating. I couldn't figure out why my initial calibration varied by maybe 30-40% between rows!!! Then noted the gears weren't matched well. Super easy micro adjustment and then the calibration numbers came back to within 10%. Hard to put into words but I think if you were looking at it, it would make sense. This adjustment should really be a one time deal. No reason they should ever move after being installed.
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
- Location
- MO - Zone 6a
I tried planning little bluestem out of a hand spreader once, bad idea! Sideoats Grama can also be done with conventional equipment if you needed a shorter NWSG.
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
- Location
- MO - Zone 6a
Likewise. I'm curious:
1) How well this plants in harder / clay ground (not rocks).
and
2) If you can plant into standing beans (and if it destroys all/most) given the rear roller setup.
1) How well this plants in harder / clay ground (not rocks).
and
2) If you can plant into standing beans (and if it destroys all/most) given the rear roller setup.
Here are just a couple pics of my beans. The sparse areas in the near edge are not from the planter not doing it’s job. These beans were planted in pasture. 100% unworked ground. Zero fertilizer (this was a mistake).
The beans didn’t thrive at all near the edges where the trees further robbed the soil of nutrients. Also it’s been hot and dry. Very little rain.
The planter did it’s job very well. I’m gearing up for the fall plantings.
The beans didn’t thrive at all near the edges where the trees further robbed the soil of nutrients. Also it’s been hot and dry. Very little rain.
The planter did it’s job very well. I’m gearing up for the fall plantings.
1- with some moisture - no issue at all into harder / clay ground. I did add shelf weight to mine which helped quite a bit.
2- Not sure if I'll have any beans left but I do intend to do some overplanting of the beans within a couple weeks. If the roller is terminating the beans then I may play with an idea to "wrap" the roller cage with some strips of thick rubber to get it off the ground at least a couple inches. No idea if this would help but its just a thought of mine. I unfortunately have a broken rubber mini excavator track back at the house so I have some raw material that I think might work. If the cage is on the ground the crimp is going to be at the ground. If I can get a few inches of clearance by wrapping a 3-4" wide tread around the cage in a few places it might just work?
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
- Location
- MO - Zone 6a
I wonder if that rear roller is easily removeable? That might work.
Not easily removable... and it is what drives the planter anyways, so that wouldn't help much. ;)
Most drills have an independent drive wheel. This one just uses the roller. If the roller isn't rolling, no seed.
Update on fall plot plantings:
In preparation for planting in the next couple weeks I played around on the drill today. Lots of experience planting the soybeans in the spring and it did wonderful. Smaller seeds and “blends” were the next item on the menu.
I’m a big fan of whitetail institute turnips / greens. I’ve done some traditional tillage plots of “Tall Tine Tubers” in the past and they did very well. Till ground. Cuktipack. Broadcast tunips. Cultipack. The problems with this method are pretty obvious. Soil erosion. Poor moisture preservation. Need for more fertilizer. More labor intensive. Etc.
This year I want to no-till the turnips. The Saya drill has two seed boxes. Smaller box has a very small gear box and can meter seed as slow as possible. However, I realized that metering a homogenous population of turnip seed is simply a pipe dream. Lol. I should have known better but I’m not a farmer. Some lessons are learned the hard way. Metered down as low as it could possibly go (to still actually put our seed) was going to drop 15-18lbs or turnips / acre. Ouch.
So now I realize why turnips are significantly “diluted” into a mix to no-till.
The drill did it’s job and did drop these seeds very evenly. (I put plastic bags over seed tubes to measure / compare / calibrate). I was simply asking it to do something impossible.
I need to find the right seed / substrate to mix with my turnips to allow accurate seed / acre without planting something that will compete heavily with the turnips. The turnips are what I want to be the main focus of the plots. I’ve got extra soybeans but the seed is so much larger than the turnip seed I know the bulk of the turnips would fall to the bottom of the bin within a short period of time.
I’m confident the Tar River drill will do the job. I just have to come up with the right blend.
In preparation for planting in the next couple weeks I played around on the drill today. Lots of experience planting the soybeans in the spring and it did wonderful. Smaller seeds and “blends” were the next item on the menu.
I’m a big fan of whitetail institute turnips / greens. I’ve done some traditional tillage plots of “Tall Tine Tubers” in the past and they did very well. Till ground. Cuktipack. Broadcast tunips. Cultipack. The problems with this method are pretty obvious. Soil erosion. Poor moisture preservation. Need for more fertilizer. More labor intensive. Etc.
This year I want to no-till the turnips. The Saya drill has two seed boxes. Smaller box has a very small gear box and can meter seed as slow as possible. However, I realized that metering a homogenous population of turnip seed is simply a pipe dream. Lol. I should have known better but I’m not a farmer. Some lessons are learned the hard way. Metered down as low as it could possibly go (to still actually put our seed) was going to drop 15-18lbs or turnips / acre. Ouch.
So now I realize why turnips are significantly “diluted” into a mix to no-till.
The drill did it’s job and did drop these seeds very evenly. (I put plastic bags over seed tubes to measure / compare / calibrate). I was simply asking it to do something impossible.
I need to find the right seed / substrate to mix with my turnips to allow accurate seed / acre without planting something that will compete heavily with the turnips. The turnips are what I want to be the main focus of the plots. I’ve got extra soybeans but the seed is so much larger than the turnip seed I know the bulk of the turnips would fall to the bottom of the bin within a short period of time.
I’m confident the Tar River drill will do the job. I just have to come up with the right blend.
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
- Location
- MO - Zone 6a
I think I’d mix with some combination of cereal grains. Something that would suppress the weeds and you could no til beans into next spring. Wheat or rye Would be good options.
SWIFFY
5 year old buck +
- Location
- Central Minnesota- Zone 4A
How would it work with radishes? The radish seed is about 4 times the size of the turnips but a good mix. Other wise clover maybe?
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
- Location
- Driftless Area SE. MN USDA Zone 4b
Urea?
Hmm. That’s an interesting idea. Would there be concern about it burning the new sprouts since a good portion of it would probably be extremely close to the seed?
If urea would be a safe addition I wonder if 6lbs turnips + 50 lbs pelletized lime + ~ 25 - 50 lbs urea / acre would work.
one thing about the urea is that I’d want to be sure to clean the drill extremity well afterwards.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
- Location
- Driftless Area SE. MN USDA Zone 4b
I would guess that all depends on your calibration. Myself, I'd come up with some sort of mix/calibration that would allow no more than one plant per 8" with 12' being more ideal. What is your row spacing on the drill?
