Sky Drills

[normandyfarmer]

Why buy a drill with less adaptable features than others on the market?

to get precice metering and only one seed test on a 6m machine.

It's indeed very adaptable for somebody that does some ploughing, min-till and direct ! Very good on min-till as well as no-till into cover crops. also can place fert on top of the seed, perfect for spring barley. Only thing they don't do well is direct drill on damp grain maize stubble but you don't have a lot that

@Jim Bullock : too bad they did not pick you to sell their drills

 

[Jim Bullock]

@Jim Bullock : too bad they did not pick you to sell their drills

We did have a meeting but we are way too small to be involved with such a large range of drills (and tillage kit), I think OPICO will do a great job for them...but in the present climate everything comes down to price

 

[TWF]

I quite liked this at LAMMA judging by lack of comment no one else did? Liked the fact that it had a seed firming wheel.

 

[fergie35]

They have quite a few demo's booked from what I can gather. Seemed a good level of interest when I popped by for a while. I can sort you out with a demo if you are interested. Where in Northants are you @TWF ?

 

[Louis Mc]

I quite liked this at LAMMA judging by lack of comment no one else did? Liked the fact that it had a seed firming wheel.

Does it have one?

 

[TWF]

Does it have one?

Having had only brief experience with a 750a I think seed firming wheel is a big advantage on a disc dril as even if you can't close the slot the seed is pushed into soil and grows fine. Only done a few hundred acres with a hired drill so have no loyalty to any brand.....

I think it did but looked at that much kit at the show I my have muddled it up.

 

[Louis Mc]

Tha

I think it did but looked at that much kit at the show I my have muddled it up.

Thought it was just an opening disc and a closing wheel

 

[yellow belly]

very similar system to a moore drill but with greasable bearings

if you force grease out of the seals as the one at lamma had the bearings will fail sooner than properly sealed bearings

 

[Jim Bullock]

I think (SKY) are great drills with a very good team behind them. The problem they may have could come down to price.
I thought that SUMO were going to be producing what I considered to be to old Moore Unidrill but have moved on to something far more complex and expensive. I didn't get to LAMMA but my son said he saw a Moore type Unidrill on a pallet but could not get much information about it from the Irish team surrounding it.

 

[Andrew K]

Whats different on the Sky drill compared with the Moore. look similar to me, but silly price now?

 

[Feldspar]

I heard the price of a 6m was quite a lot.

 

[Sitting Pretty]

48k for a 3 meter fert box version. Looks well made and I'm sure does a great job with very low horse power requirement which is also a plus but come on guys, get real.

 

[hally]

very similar system to a moore drill but with greasable bearings

if you force grease out of the seals as the one at lamma had the bearings will fail sooner than properly sealed bearings

our moore has greasable bearings and they last considerably longer than the sealed type but you are right only small amounts of grease required, if you force out the seals with grease they dont last five minutes

 

[Simon Chiles]

Isn't this a poor copy of the Moore Unidrill? Someone tried to force Sammy out of business by not selling him hoppers and then copied his drill, they used the rubber block suspension instead of springs ( the good bit ) to get around patents.
I'd have a Unidrill instead of this as it was a better design. You'd pick a decent secondhand one up at a fraction of the cost.

 

[phil]

Has Sam Moore not got an arable drill in pipeline soon?

 

[Andy Howard]

Has anyone had any more experiences with this drill? I hadn't really considered it but at a drill comparison at the Kent monitor farm I went to this week it was the stand out drill for establishment and root length. Price is still ridiculous. It has interesting features that would suit intercropping and companion cropping. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Andrew K]

Local farmers to us tried one this autumn, but got the impression it lacked coulter pressure in hard conditions.

 

[Andy Howard]

Local farmers to us tried one this autumn, but got the impression it lacked coulter pressure in hard conditions.

That's the problem of reducing the angle of the disk, I guess.

 

[RBM]

We tried it in the spring excellent establishment & seed placement, generally impressed with it, but in not particularly hard conditions it was nearly on its limit for downforce. The other issue was the price tag!

 

[farmerfred86]

We tried a 6m sky drill this autum. Overall it did a good job despite some initial setup problems. It does need decent HP on the front although less than some other direct drills!
The shallow disc angle worked well and there was minimal disturbance between the counters.
Seemed to have plenty of pressure too but we never tried it in any very tough soil conditions.
Would really like to try one in the spring to see how it copes in different conditions.
Didn't like the RDS control box... Feels dated now compared to other controllers.