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Mike Arndt
Joined: 13 May 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Ontario
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 Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:46 pm Post subject: the new roller WORKS |
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Is this the first roller in CANADA
The roller crusher works as well as advertised. About 90to 98 percent kill.
Those of you who plan to build your own roller, should seriously consider building a custom mount instead of waiting for a 3 point hitch.
It is not THAT hard if you want to.
My roller uses DOWN ward pressure to get a better crush ratio. This of course reduces traction for steering. A steerable roller will be designed in the fall in version 2.
Anyone having technical questions can respond directly by email.
I am now at the design stage of converting a regular drill to no-till. Any help would be appreciated.
I'd like to personally thank Jeff and everyone at The Rodale for their ideas, commitment, and answers to my many questions.
Mike |
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Harry Stoddart
Joined: 26 Jul 2006
Posts: 2
Location: Lindsay, Ontario
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| Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 7:36 pm Post subject: Another Roller in Ontario |
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Glad to hear I'm not alone up here.
Our experience was similar - I went the route of removing every other flute to double the down pressure in addition to filling the roller with water. Although as the crop progresses I'm not convinced that there is much difference - it may have just been aesthetics in seeing fewer rye stalks rebounding.
I would caution anyone building a custom front mount hitch to make sure you engineer it properly as the weight of the roller will add significant stresses to the front end. We mounted a 15' roller on the front of a JD 4650 using a Zuideberg 3 point hitch. I was surprised at the amount of frame reinforcement that came with the hitch. Essentially the rails were reinforced with 5/8 plate all the way back to the cab.
Anyone working from the plans that Rodale has posted will find that there are some errors in the drawings. Most notable is the drawing of the flutes - they've missed the fact that the flutes need to be both curved and twisted to provide a constant angle to the roller drum.
I'm interested in comparing notes with anyone else trying this in Ontario. We did a 40 acre test with it this year. I had intended to try a couple of hundred acres but the other rye fields didn't winter very well and the stand was too thin to provide much weed control so we disced them in and planted conventionally. I'm glad I did as the thin spots in wet areas and knolls in the field we did show significant weed pressure. Where the rye was good and thick and 5 feet tall or better, the weed control is good and the beans are looking good.
We farm in the Lindsay and Bradford areas.
Harry Stoddart |
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Mike Arndt
Joined: 13 May 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Ontario
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| Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:29 pm Post subject: Canadian rollers |
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Harry! you may contacy me directly at kingmrmike@hotmail.com
I'm just down the road near Millbrook.
Thanks, Mike |
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Dirk
Joined: 24 Mar 2007
Posts: 2
Location: Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:00 am Post subject: crop roller |
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We are discussing the crop roller at another online forum. One member posted the following argument-- ignore the chemical part as obviously if you are organic you wouldn't do that-- but I thought he had some interesting points on gas consumption, etc. and was wondering if anyone had a response.
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Oh they are talking about doing no-till in a grass field. Most farmers just do it on bean or corn fields, but then again most farmers only grow corn and beans.
We spray ours because we can be in and out of the field in no time.
We have a 135ft boom and travel at 13mph.
Thats over 200 acres an hour. With fuel consumption of 11gph we use very little fuel.
Sure we are using a chemical, but you have to figure in just how much damage is being done.
For a 200 acre field we are using 11 gallons of fuel. And its only taking an hour.
Now Im not sure how fast those guys were going but Im assuming their contration ws 8ft wide and they were going about 8mph at the most.
Thats not even 8 acres an hour.
That tractor they were using was a bit older but has less power than our sprayer so id say it suses about 12gph of fuel.
To do a 200 acre field it would take them 25 hours and they would use 300 gallons of fuel.
So think to yourself, use a little bit of Roundup (which is basically harmless) and only 11 gallons of fuel, or use no Roundup and 300 gallons of fuel.
At 2.50 a gallon im spending only $27 on fuel
The guys with the roller are spending $750 on just fuel.
At 2 quarts of roundup to an acre, im spending $250 on roundup.
I have one hour of labor figured at $20/hr.
They have 25 hours of labor.
My grand total: $297
Their Grand Total:$1, 250
My harm to the environment: The odd chance that somehow the ROudnup does something to the environment, which it doesnt becasue glysophate drys quickly nd stays right where it is at.
Their harm to the environment: Emissions from their old tractor. My SPrayer is Tier 2 compliant, their tractor isnt compliant with any emissions regulations.
If you run the numbers its clearly not worth it for farmers. Especially when I cn save 1000 by not doing it.
Hobby Farmers I could see it as an interest.
Organic farmers I could see it as a crossover item, becasue new chemicals are being approved all the time. |
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Harry Stoddart
Joined: 26 Jul 2006
Posts: 2
Location: Lindsay, Ontario
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| Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:21 pm Post subject: There's a little faulty logic in there. |
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Dirk: Whoever wrote what you quoted missed one not so small detail: the front-mounted roller isn't an extra pass over the field. The proper comparison is incremental fuel use on the planting pass because of the added weight and resistance of the roller vs. the fuel for spraying plus the hydrocarbon consumption that occurred manufacturing and distributing the Round-up (not as insignificant as the writer suggests).
In our case, we built a 15' roller to match a 15' JD 750 no-till drill and put a three point hitch on the front of our JD 4650. We probably burned a little extra fuel because the headlands have to be a little wider to allow for the wide front-end when turning. When the roller was on the ground (we let it float) I'm not sure the tractor noticed the difference vs. straight no-tilling.
If you set it up properly, there's no question that there's less petrochemical consumption with this method versus spraying.
Here's a link to some pictures of our rig from last year:
http://www.stoddart.ca/index_files/NoTill.html
The only change for this year is some paint.
_________________
Harry Stoddart
The Stoddart Family Farm
www.stoddart.ca
farm@stoddart.ca |
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Dirk
Joined: 24 Mar 2007
Posts: 2
Location: Virginia
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:29 pm Post subject: thanks! |
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| Thanks for the response- and pics! |
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waukon
Joined: 30 Jan 2008
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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| dear jeff and other rye rollers, seems as there are no postings on any results of rolling rye and planting beans for the 2007 growing season. I'd especially would like to know how it went at Rodale. I've talked to Harry & mike, would like to here about any farmers and their opinions. Thank You merlin gesing i'm in NE Iowa. 563-568-6031 e-mail gesing@netins.net |
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Prariefarmer
Joined: 21 Feb 2009
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:19 pm Post subject: Email please |
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Hey Mike
I'm kind of been checking out Rodale's No till research for a couple of years
I checked out the original plans of the roller . However I'm interested in seeing you design plans for your roller . |
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Carriage House Farm
Joined: 16 Sep 2007
Posts: 486
Location: North Bend, Ohio
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| Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 7:23 am Post subject: |
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This seems like its a dead thread, but I am curious what the yields were at harvest and how the project continues.
_________________
Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, OH
An Ohio Century Farm
http://www.carriagehousefarmllc.com |
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