Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | We roll every field pea and soybean acre before planting, any yield increase would be from being able to cut lower.
we have rocky soil and see I am guessing, 90% less rocks / dirt going into the combine.
We tried to experiment by not rolling pea bean ground that was in the third year of a pea /bean row crop rotation to grass type crop, then back to pea bean rotation.
Our thinking was that the slight disturbance of our 750 drills in our pure no till system would not have brought up enough rocks to cause much problem with rocks in the third year with a pea / bean row crop. We were wrong.
The rocks on the surface and gopher mounds caused enough trouble to justify rolling every year in peas /beans.
We have been renting our roller from a local rental outfit for I believe $3.75 per acre. I have no ownership or maintenance cost and they deliver it to my yard, ready to use when I want it , and take it away when I am done. $3.75 X my 1000 acres per year =$3750 per year minus any tax breaks for rented equipment. I don't know if I could justify owning a new one at that rate.
Edited by Jon Hagen 11/24/2008 19:59
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Did rolling your beans this year?
