Tar River SAYA-507 No Till Drill

How does it cover? Did you feel that it did well enough you didn't have to go back over with a drag or something
 
There are some spring loaded pressure plates located behind the roller cage. Where l no-tilled into worked ground, very little seed was exposed so L thing it covered well. l also planted into some areas that had some vegetation. l believe the seed was deposited well. Seed should germinate in a few days so I'll know more in 10 days or so. Let me know if you have any additional questions.
 
Do you have any ground pics in unworked ground after planting
 
I do not. I will try to get some.and see if l can get them attached.
 
Any updates, especially with pictures of how things worked out this year? Thinking about going the no till route and considering these drills. Also looking at the genesis and Great Plains. Obviously this drill is a major step down but will it do the job for the substantially lower price vs the others?
 
20+ acres for me this fall. Absolutely wonderful. No major complaints. A couple minor things I’d change or modify design wise but not a big deal. For the $ would not pay 2 - 2.5 x as much for a genesis or GP.
 
Jealous. Talked to my local dealer yesterday. He said didn't know when they would ever get new ones and didn't know at what price. Said one guy put down $500 deposit for one.
 
View attachment 36479
view out back glass of the new kubota.
Nice view..
Food for thought. Your curve doesn't appear to hard but turning with the implement in the ground does create excessive wear on bearings and can break a coulter or openers. I have a few places I curve a little to but try keeping it straight for the most part. Looking good.
 
Nice view..
Food for thought. Your curve doesn't appear to hard but turning with the implement in the ground does create excessive wear on bearings and can break a coulter or openers. I have a few places I curve a little to but try keeping it straight for the most part. Looking good.
Agree100%. That curve is honestly not as sharp as that picture makes it look and I wouldn’t go any sharper than that.
 
Thanks for the information. I have pretty hard red clay where I hunt. Any concerns about the drill weight/down pressure in heavy ground? Have any of you had to add weight to get good ground penetration?
 
I’ve added roughly 300 lbs to mine. In some ground that’s not needed. In other ground it wouldn’t be enough. The absolute key (in my opinion) is to simply drill into moist (heck even wet) ground). Lot of clay in my ground. When it’s dry it’s hard. Not a big deal if you’re planting 1/2”-1”. If you’re trying to plant soybeans 1.5-2” deep in hard dry clay I think you might be disappointed without a lot of added weight. The Tar River has a big shelf on the front so adding weight is easy.
 
Im still waiting for mine. Was supposed to be here mid-July... then early August... im keeping my fingers crossed. Cant wait to try it out!
 
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much better than the old John Deere 4300
 
What way have you found to catch the seeds to weigh?

I’ve been using zip loc bags on a couple and it is a pain in the butt. Thinking about making a catch that stretches across all the tubes.

Also are y’all having a problem with the longer tubes stopping up a lot? If so how did you remedy it. I pull those tubes and let them hang in front of the openers. Buckwheat and oats it doesn’t make much of a differenc. Soybeans, I feel as if I am losing germination.
 
For me the ziplock bags are not a big pain. That’s what I use. If you take good notes and write in a sharpie on the underside of the lid it’s not something you’ll have to do all that much.

As for the tubes. Yes. I kinda forgot about that. I ditched the bigger rubber tubes. They hang at too much of an angle and the larger bends catch the seed really bad. A bunch of seed would stick along the side and when you hit a little bump... spillage.

I went to all smaller plastic tubes. For the longer reaches you do have to piggy pack a short piece of additional plastic tube (they have male / female ends). Tubes are cheap at any farm supply store.

The tube deal is one of those quality control / testing issues that really should have been caught during design. However, for the cost of this drill those are very minor gripes with easy fixes.

The other user I’ve been having is that the galvanized pipe that holds all the spring flaps will tend to twist up over time. The u bolts on each end just aren’t designed to hold the twisting force constantly applied to it. When the drill is off the ground those black flaps should point pretty much straight down. I can plant an acre of two and lift the drill and they’re pointing more horizontal than vertical. Haven’t tinkered with resolving this little issue but I can think of a few pretty easy ideas.
 
For me the ziplock bags are not a big pain. That’s what I use. If you take good notes and write in a sharpie on the underside of the lid it’s not something you’ll have to do all that much.

As for the tubes. Yes. I kinda forgot about that. I ditched the bigger rubber tubes. They hang at too much of an angle and the larger bends catch the seed really bad. A bunch of seed would stick along the side and when you hit a little bump... spillage.

I went to all smaller plastic tubes. For the longer reaches you do have to piggy pack a short piece of additional plastic tube (they have male / female ends). Tubes are cheap at any farm supply store.

The tube deal is one of those quality control / testing issues that really should have been caught during design. However, for the cost of this drill those are very minor gripes with easy fixes.

The other user I’ve been having is that the galvanized pipe that holds all the spring flaps will tend to twist up over time. The u bolts on each end just aren’t designed to hold the twisting force constantly applied to it. When the drill is off the ground those black flaps should point pretty much straight down. I can plant an acre of two and lift the drill and they’re pointing more horizontal than vertical. Haven’t tinkered with resolving this little issue but I can think of a few pretty easy ideas.
could you snap a pic of these issues fixes when time allows, im suppose ot have mine in December so ill have some time to work on it prior to spring.
 
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.
What about oats? would that work?
 
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