Tar River SAYA-507 No Till Drill

[breddick]

The drill has been a game changer for us this year. Here’s a picture of my 9 year old son and his buck from yesterday. With so many acres of lush greens this year the deer are unable to mow them down as in years past. Yes you can see the browse is heavy but the holding capacity of our property has increased substantially.
This particular field was whitetail institute Tall Tine Tubers mixed with cereal rye. I think my turnip density was around 3 lbs / acre. Diluted in a 50 lb sack of cereal rye (mostly to help calibrate the drill)

 

[Southern Hunter]

Awesome !!!Congrats!! I know you're proud. My drill didn't come in until end of october. Couldn't find any cereal rye that late and am using winter wheat as cover with turnips. Gonna drill forrage soybeans onto the wheat next spring.

 

[haystack]

Has anyone planted corn with the Tar River SAYA?

 

[breddick]

Has anyone planted corn with the Tar River SAYA?

I have not but there is no reason it wouldn't. Just close the holes to give you whatever row width you want. 21", 28", 35"... In soil with just a little moisture it should plant as deep as you want.

 

[Iowa_Dave]

I have not but there is no reason it wouldn't. Just close the holes to give you whatever row width you want. 21", 28", 35"... In soil with just a little moisture it should plant as deep as you want.

Curious...I was under the impression that this style of no-till drill could not reliably get the corn seeds deep enough to be a reliable corn planting option. Beans, yes, corn, no...was my understanding. I am curious about this though...any other thoughts or experiences??

 

[swat1018]

Corn doesn't have to be that deep. Ideally, yes, but I've had some great stands planted at an inch, with beans.

 

[Timinator]

Excellent info, very much appreciated.

 

[haystack]

I've almost got myself convinced on the SAYA 505, I can get it for around $5,200 to my farm in Iowa. I've got a JD 3520 with 37 HP and don't want to go any bigger. The 48" Versa Drill from Kasco is $8,000. The closest sales guy has only sold 1 of the SAYA's and said that they used it to plant corn on corn ground with no tillage and they were happy with the results. I would just love to lay my eyes on one before I order it.

 

[breddick]

I've almost got myself convinced on the SAYA 505, I can get it for around $5,200 to my farm in Iowa. I've got a JD 3520 with 37 HP and don't want to go any bigger. The 48" Versa Drill from Kasco is $8,000. The closest sales guy has only sold 1 of the SAYA's and said that they used it to plant corn on corn ground with no tillage and they were happy with the results. I would just love to lay my eyes on one before I order it.

I don't know the specs of your 3520. I've got a 2002 4300 HST. With some weight in the front end loader bucket I can handle the 507 no problem. It's all she wants but it's not hurting the tractor. That's even with about 300 lbs of weight on the planter shelf and pretty full with seed. Just some #'s for you to crunch.

Back to the corn question above... MOISTURE is your key. Go ahead and try to plant corn in dry as concrete never worked soil and it probably isn't going to work well. A little moisture and it'll send them 2"+ deep all day long.

Also, I haven't looked closely but I suppose if depth were a concern you could raise / remove the coulters / openers for the rows not being planted? That would significantly increase (multiply) the weight on each row. I haven't looked at the ease of doing this as I have no intention of plating corn with my drill.

 

[haystack]

I own the outlined 40 acres and plant about 5 acres of food plots every year rotating corn and soybeans, I've got about 6 acres of clover in the 30 foot wide burn strips that need reseeding, but I can also plant other things like rye, oats brassica's in. I've been tilling up the corn ground every year to plant the beans with a totally worn out drill that leaves most of the beans on top of the ground. I've been paying the neighbor farmer to plant the corn in the last years bean ground. I think that the Tar River drill would work well for me.

 

[haystack]

I'll probably always be planting my corn in last year's bean ground, and I'm supposed to be retired, so I can always wait for moisture.

 

[Southern Hunter]

Need to make an adjustment on small seed drop for clover, rape,turnip etc. When the seed drop slide is in open position Small seed will pour out from where the seed shut off slide would seal when in the closed position. Anyone else encountered this on SAYA 507 NT?

 

[Timinator]

Need to make an adjustment on small seed drop for clover, rape,turnip etc. When the seed drop slide is in open position Small seed will pour out from where the seed shut off slide would seal when in the closed position. Anyone else encountered this on SAYA 507 NT?

I've been looking into these and I don't think there are that many of them out there yet. They're relatively new. That's why there are so few videos and dealers who actually have them....yet.

 

[breddick]

Need to make an adjustment on small seed drop for clover, rape,turnip etc. When the seed drop slide is in open position Small seed will pour out from where the seed shut off slide would seal when in the closed position. Anyone else encountered this on SAYA 507 NT?

Yes, noted the same issue when I initially tried to plant tiny seed by itself. Solved the issue by diluting seed with cereal rye or pelletized lyme or any substrate of your choice.

 

[Timinator]

Yes, noted the same issue when I initially tried to plant tiny seed by itself. Solved the issue by diluting seed with cereal rye or pelletized lyme or any substrate of your choice.

How small of seed will it plant/drop correctly without having to use carrier filler?

 

[breddick]

Turnip and clover are too small in my opinion to even attempt to plant by itself. Asking the drill to drop out 3-4 lbs / acre is a very tall task to ask of it. Now I understand there are some drills that can do it. They're not anywhere near this price point either.

I think an easier way to think about it is lbs / acre rather than seed size. I believe the drill can accurately put down 10-12 lbs acre if not a little less. I originally tried to plant PTT by itself and learned a ton with that effort!

Save yourself the frustration and simply use something to dilute it. I used pelletized lyme for some and it worked great. For most of my plots I mixed my Greens / Turnips with a 50 lb sack of cereal rye. Super easy to calibrate this way and the rye is a great addition to the mix.

 

[Timinator]

I found one of these and have it set aside. I've "heard" that Ohio many go to no baiting since they've found their first cases of CWD. So, I have room for more plots and I'm thinking I may need them if in case we can't have a feeder out anymore. I have clover and winter brassica's now, but I enjoy plotting and have spent way too much time looking at no-till drills and applications to just stop now!

 

[john volkman]

i ordered a 55" and it should arrive late may early june , excited ot finally have a no till!

 

[Bassattackr]

i ordered a 55" and it should arrive late may early june , excited ot finally have a no till!

Great! Post up a review after you get it.

 

[Turkish]

Any new reviews out there?