FARGO, N.D. – The era when only pulse growers bought land rollers has passed.
The farm implement is now a common sight in corn, canola, wheat and hay fields and is equally at home on zero till, minimum till and conventional till land.
Land rollers evolved with the increase in pulse crop acreage and those crops’ special needs.
Pulse growers cut low to capture the entire crop, but rocks or dirt clumps can create costly delays in terms of parts, downtime and weather downgrading.
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Cutting higher to avoid surface hazards leaves valuable pods in the field.
Pulse growers found that rolling their fields immediately after seeding pushed down the rocks and levelled the surface.
Grain farmers picked up on the benefits of their pulse-growing neighbours’ smooth fields, particularly when sprayers, swathers and combines could run at a faster pace.
Seeding into a rolled field the following year was often easier because of the level surface.
That’s when land rolling started to come into its own, said John Redekop, owner of Mandako JR Welding, an agricultural equipment manufacturing firm in Plum Coulee, Man.
“Rocks in pulse crop fields had always been the obvious traditional use for rollers,” Redekop said.
“But today, farmers are using rollers for a number of other things.”
Corn
Crop rotations with corn and soybeans have created one of the new uses.
“You have to get rid of that rootball from the corn. That rootball is a three pound solid clump of dirt that you don’t want going through your combine.”
As corn becomes a more economically attractive crop, the corn rootball becomes a bigger economic problem. A combine can be down for days with an expensive repair bill if it picks up even one solid rootball from last year’s crop.
In the past few years, genetic development in corn hybrids has given stalks and roots a long lifespan after harvest.
While the stalk often decomposes within a year, producers say the rootball can survive for two years.
“They still feel solid like a piece of lumber a year after you’ve grown the crop,” Redekop said.
“By rolling them in so they’re flush with the surface, you get rid of them for that one year at least. They break up somewhat from pressing them into the ground. And they decompose better in the ground than in the open air. You can roll them in the fall after harvest or in the spring before seeding. If they’re still a problem the next year, then you roll them again.”
Zero till
One pass seeding is becoming increasingly popular, but the rough field surface is hard on operators and equipment.
Redekop said that in the past few years, more of his customers are buying rollers to smooth those fields. Some roll every year.
“The big thing is you want to get rid of that rough ride for your equipment. Rolling gets rid of the ridges left over from seeding. You always roll with the rows. That gives you a smooth field surface after one pass seeding,” he said.
“This saves you time when you’re spraying. You have a small spraying window. If you’re forced to go slow so you don’t shake your boom apart, it wastes your time and money. But, you know, all of your equipment is expensive. What’s the price of a combine now, $300,000?”
Redekop said the rolling benefit extends beyond the immediate growing season.
As long as wet harvest conditions haven’t rutted up the field, that rolled surface will be better suited for seeding the subsequent crop, whether it’s fall seeded in the same year or spring seeded the next year.
“You always want to put your seed into an even seedbed. For example, if you want to seed small seeds and you have trouble controlling the depth with your air seeder, if you roll it first you’ll have better depth control.”
Canola
Canola is another new use for land rollers.
“If you have a problem with your air seeder getting canola seed too deep, you can roll it in. In lighter soils, if you leave more residue on the ground, you can then broadcast your canola seed and just roll it in,” he said.
“This widens your seeding window because you don’t need to pre-work your field (in the spring.) If you just do a minimum of cultivating in the fall, then put the seed on right after the frost is out and it warms up enough.”
Spring seeding onto a rolled field is almost as convenient as having a fall-seeded crop waiting for next year’s warm weather.
Redekop said producers who seed their canola early this way can apply their attention to the many other tasks that must be squeezed into the busy spring season.
Jason Ferguson of Gladstone, Man., has rolled in canola seed several times. He said the yield is usually as good as it would have been with an air seeder.
“We get 40 to 50 bushels when we roll in the canola seed, but you’ve got to have the right conditions. You’ve got to have relatively wet soil with good moisture right at the top,” Ferguson said.
“We don’t have real heavy soil here, so when we get a year when it’s really wet, that’s when we float the seed on with the Valmar with a fertilizer blend. It’s simple. We just blow it on and roll it in. We usually do that in late April or early May, so it really speeds up our whole spring seeding operation.”
Ferguson spent $28,000 on a new 45 foot roller from Mandako this year.
Up the road, Jason’s uncle has used the same 24 foot land roller for years.
Rod Ferguson said he uses the roller on old hay fields, for levelling mole hills and for incorporating grass seed.
“It works well (on canola) when conditions are right, when you’ve got moisture to the top. But it didn’t work that well for us this year.”
Hay
Forage growers also recognize the benefits of rolling their land. Instead of cutting at four inches or higher to protect the machine, an operator in a rolled field can set the cutterbar at ground level.
Rolling hay fields early in the spring pushes rocks down and reduces the height of rodent mounds. The result is more biomass per acre and lower maintenance costs.
“Losing a blade means your whole machine goes through the turmoil of that rock,” Redekop said.
The impact experienced by the operator is felt through the entire implement. In addition to repair costs, downtime has other costs that can be more significant.
“That’s prime time for cutting. You shouldn’t be doing repairs. So it’s the quality of the haying job that suffers. That makes it even more expensive to maintain forage equipment damaged by rocks.”
Redekop said one of his new customers had regularly lost four or five blades every haying season. This year he rolled his hay fields in the spring. He finished haying with no broken blades.
Redekop said the benefit of land rolling spreads over the entire operation. All types of equipment can operate at higher speeds to cover more acres per hour with less downtime and less money spent on maintenance, he added.
“It’s no longer just bean and lentil growers or farmers who’ve put corn in their rotation,” he said. “It’s wheat and canola growers and forage producers. And it’s in zero till, minimum till and conventional tillage.”
Added Ferguson: “The payback time on this investment will be very short.”
For more information, contact John Redekop at 204-829-3092 or visit www.mandakoagri.com.
