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EC North Dakota | I purchased a roller a year ago and used it on all my soybean acres this spring. Best money spent for a long time. Here are my reasons for saying this.
After rolling combining is so much easier. Ground is flater so the cutter bar does not have to bounce so much. I do believe there is a gain in yield when harvesting rolled beans just from this fact.
Other years when combining behind corn I was getting a lot of dirt in hopper and through the combine. Root balls were to blame. After rolling no more dirt through combine. The roller pushes the root balls down and gets the dirt out of them, had nearly no root balls sticking into the guards causing skips.
Have a neighbor who rented mine last spring to roll old corn ground. My cousin runs combine for him and cousin hopes he rents it again. Same reason as above about dirt etc. The neiighbor thought where he rolled he had better emergence than other beans he seeded. Though that the roller improved the seed to soil contact.
In over 1200A of soybeans this year I think I emptied two small rocks out of rock trap. This includes some very rocky ground that I farm where other years I was empting two to three rocks out of stone trap two or three times per day. The rocks get pressed into the ground and do not get scouped up by the cutter bar.
For the cost of operation to run the roller the last statement make the most economic sense to me.
Up keep on the roller is very minumal. Grease the 6 bearings on the rollers and the three pivot points every two quarters. I happened to purchase a 42' Summers. No backing up to unfold. Pivots onto 4 wheels for transport.
Here is web link to Summers Mfg, go to Products then go to super roller, second page shows one on top middle, click it for info.
http://www.summersmfg.com/
Just my two cents worth.
I did rent mine out to neighbors this past year. Was used on my 1200A plus rented out for 1800A. I do beleive the people I rented to last spring will rent again or purchase their own.
Hope this long winded explanation helps
Edited by JonND 11/23/2008 22:30
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Did rolling your beans this year?
