Crimper/Roller

[Newbie]

Hoping to get some feedback on roller/crimpers. I'd love to minimize the use of herbicides in my food plotting efforts, at least on the larger fields. I'd love to let my fields grow all spring/summer, broadcast into the existing vegetation, and roll/crimp it down for a fall plot. First, is this a reasonable goal? I know there is a ton of variables but I'd be thrilled if I could broadcast clover/brassicas/rye and just crimp down the native forbs/grasses and get a reasonably productive plot by doing so.

Secondly, why the heck are these things so expensive? I understand there's a lot of steel there, but it seems like a relatively simple machine - more-so than mowers/etc., and they cost every bit as much or more. Everything I've seen is $5k++ which feels like a pretty steep price (for me) for something that might come out of the garage once or twice a year.

Anyone try a DIY crimper? I figure with a bit of ingenuity and a free weekend or two you may be able to mock something up that may suffice (even if it isn't the prettiest piece of equipment on the block).

Anyway, just thinking out loud here & thought the HabitatTalk brain trust may want to chime in.



*pic of a quick attach crimper I was looking at on marketplace*

 

[Brian662]

Worth doing some forum searches here, its been discussed a lot.

Significant negative feedback for loader mounted crimper making it hard to steer and very rough on your equipment, IIRC.

Never could get the math to pencil out in my favor on one, personally.

 

[Newbie]

Worth doing some forum searches here, its been discussed a lot.

Significant negative feedback for loader mounted crimper making it hard to steer and very rough on your equipment, IIRC.

Never could get the math to pencil out in my favor on one, personally.

Yeah, I've been scrolling through quite a few old posts as well.

Good call on the loader mounted crimper causing issues with steering, sure would be nice to put it out front to knock things down before driving though & be able to roll into field edges and such but I could definitely see the drawback in steering & being tough on the equipment.

 

[Foggy47]

I have a Goliath roller / crimper. Made by the folks that make Genesis drills. Same design basically for most of the popular brands....most good brands are of the Rodale Institute design. I did mount mine on my loader and gave it a try. I did not like that way of operating even a little bit. As said....the steering was quite difficult and I could see the stress put on the loader joints. I did not do that long, before turning my unit back to the 3 point mount. Works good on the three point.

I easily terminate my rye crop into my clover.....and I get a very even mulch when doing so. I plant about 6 acres of rye into all my food plots in late summer.....and by mid July I will terminate by one of three methods: herbicides, flail mowing, roller crimping.

Truthfully I do not use the roller crimper as much as I thought I might. My flail mower makes nearly as nice of a mulch Matt as would the roller crimper.....and the crimper is a one-act pony. I know I could get along fine without one. I got mine before the prices spiked up a few years ago. One reason I bought it....was that I had a design idea that could have been manufactured for less....and considered developing and patenting a line of rollers and crimpers at that time. Turns out some of the manufacturing methods and materials were not really available to me. (They are available in China, but not the USA - go figure).

After doing some due dilligence.....it was decided to scrap my plan. I think it is a good product for someone with much more land to use it on. Maybe 30 acres or more makes better sense? Dunno.....it's a good tool, but not as needed as I once thought. My 2 cents.

BTW....not as easy to build as you may think. Some designs I have seen are quite novel....and many seem to work after a fashion. At one time back in the 60's I can remember crimpers were sold by New Idea for haying. I wonder if you might find one of those and make it work? OTOH.....those were used with hay that had been mowed and then crimped to condition it. Thus the name mower/conditoner back in the day.

 

[Foggy47]

Hoping to get some feedback on roller/crimpers. I'd love to minimize the use of herbicides in my food plotting efforts, at least on the larger fields. I'd love to let my fields grow all spring/summer, broadcast into the existing vegetation, and roll/crimp it down for a fall plot. First, is this a reasonable goal? I know there is a ton of variables but I'd be thrilled if I could broadcast clover/brassicas/rye and just crimp down the native forbs/grasses and get a reasonably productive plot by doing so.

Secondly, why the heck are these things so expensive? I understand there's a lot of steel there, but it seems like a relatively simple machine - more-so than mowers/etc., and they cost every bit as much or more. Everything I've seen is $5k++ which feels like a pretty steep price (for me) for something that might come out of the garage once or twice a year.

Anyone try a DIY crimper? I figure with a bit of ingenuity and a free weekend or two you may be able to mock something up that may suffice (even if it isn't the prettiest piece of equipment on the block).

Anyway, just thinking out loud here & thought the HabitatTalk brain trust may want to chime in.

View attachment 92890

*pic of a quick attach crimper I was looking at on marketplace*

This design is not too good....IMO. See the flutes and their angle in relation to the 'gap" between those flutes? It's going to bounce and shake the daylights out of your tractor.....IMO. The flutes need to keep an even contact with the ground when rolled. IMO

 

[SD51555]

I don't think the crimper is a requirement anymore. It's pretty much just an early rye termination tool. The reality is, rye will finish on it's own within a few weeks of being able to take it out with a crimper anyway.

If you really plan your rotations, you can flatten a lot of cover crop options with just timing and planning around the natural cycles of the plants. Then you can lay it flat with just a cultipacker, and it will stay down because the plant is just done. Biennials like: Red clover, yellow sweet clover, balansa clover, rye, wheat, barley, triticale, all work with this. Throw chicory in too, cause it will roll and stand back up and be the first thing back in action after you press it flat.

Throw alfalfa in too. It can be stemmy as all get out, press flat, and it'll put up new forage for fall anyway. This isn't too zone specific. I'm in the far north, so I can cover a whole calendar year with one motion. Spread seed late summer, let it all grow until late summer next year, and repeat. The farther south you go, frankly, you have more options. I'd love to have an extra month or two so I could throw and roll pumpkins, but I don't have that much window. This might be prone to troubles in the far south, but I'd still go for it, just tweek your plant rotation.

Here's my video where I pressed green japanese millet flat with just a cultipacker, and because it was fully headed out, it stayed down, and I got a good fall crop up through it without rain. And I still have the millet duff layer today. It's gonna save my bacon as the drought intensifies from here forward.

You can skip to the 2:00 mark and see it all in about 30 seconds.

https://rumble.com/v6ygxrc-throw-and-roll-japanese-millet.html

Here's another from 2024. Start at the 1:20 mark. That old growth stage stuff just stays down, and I think because it's not dead, it actually inhibits it's own next generation.

Throw and Roll 2024

First time giving crimping a try. Not an actual crimper, but seeing if I could make it work.

rumble.com

 

[gunfun13]

I built this one a few years back. Worked well but eventually I went back to more conventional methods and am now transitioning out of plots and more into orchards.

 

[Foggy47]

^ You did a nice job with that crimper. Looks like it did shake things a bit. Kudo's!

 

[BC Buck]

I spray early because I kill to many turkey nest and fawns crimping.

 

[omicron1792]

Worth doing some forum searches here, its been discussed a lot.

Significant negative feedback for loader mounted crimper making it hard to steer and very rough on your equipment, IIRC.

Never could get the math to pencil out in my favor on one, personally.

I disagree. The front end loader negatives have all been theoretical except with me. I have now done it for years with no negatives. And in one pass instead of two.

 

[omicron1792]

I have a Goliath roller / crimper. Made by the folks that make Genesis drills. Same design basically for most of the popular brands....most good brands are of the Rodale Institute design. I did mount mine on my loader and gave it a try. I did not like that way of operating even a little bit. As said....the steering was quite difficult and I could see the stress put on the loader joints. I did not do that long, before turning my unit back to the 3 point mount. Works good on the three point.

I easily terminate my rye crop into my clover.....and I get a very even mulch when doing so. I plant about 6 acres of rye into all my food plots in late summer.....and by mid July I will terminate by one of three methods: herbicides, flail mowing, roller crimping.

Truthfully I do not use the roller crimper as much as I thought I might. My flail mower makes nearly as nice of a mulch Matt as would the roller crimper.....and the crimper is a one-act pony. I know I could get along fine without one. I got mine before the prices spiked up a few years ago. One reason I bought it....was that I had a design idea that could have been manufactured for less....and considered developing and patenting a line of rollers and crimpers at that time. Turns out some of the manufacturing methods and materials were not really available to me. (They are available in China, but not the USA - go figure).

After doing some due dilligence.....it was decided to scrap my plan. I think it is a good product for someone with much more land to use it on. Maybe 30 acres or more makes better sense? Dunno.....it's a good tool, but not as needed as I once thought. My 2 cents.

BTW....not as easy to build as you may think. Some designs I have seen are quite novel....and many seem to work after a fashion. At one time back in the 60's I can remember crimpers were sold by New Idea for haying. I wonder if you might find one of those and make it work? OTOH.....those were used with hay that had been mowed and then crimped to condition it. Thus the name mower/conditoner back in the day.

I do agree with Foggy that it’s not necessary. I use it one day a year max. And still need to spray some too.

If you have the money great. But for me it will be several more years of spraying before I can just crimp and do nothing else.

 

[Foggy47]

I disagree. The front end loader negatives have all been theoretical except with me. I have now done it for years with no negatives. And in one pass instead of two.

It's strange that you and I have such varying experience with the same model of roller and basically similar tractors and loaders. Maybe you have straight runs in your fields Omi?....or no undulating areas? Did you turn your roller around so the flutes go the proper direction? (I did that, and then re-turned to the original way when going back to 3 point).

I know you for a long time....and have little doubt in your judgement of such things.....but we have widely different views on this operation. I had to continually lift my roller in order to steer the tractor at times....and if I did not lift the loader arms I could visibly see the side torque to those loader arms and joints.

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this one. grin.

 

[BC Buck]

I disagree. The front end loader negatives have all been theoretical except with me. I have now done it for years with no negatives. And in one pass instead of two.

Do you run front loader in float or down preasure?

 

[omicron1792]

Do you run front loader in float or down preasure?

That’s what I was gonna say.

First year I ran down pressure. It definitely put more strain and made turning hard.

Last two times I did it in float and it was much easier. Makes gradual turns easier and I just lift the implements and turn the tractor around at end of runs.

It definitely doesn’t make the line perfect at the ends of your fields. But that doesn’t bother me any.

I agree with fog if I was doing this 30 days a year it would cause some eventual problems to the FIL. But I literally use is one time a year. So I just haven’t seen the negatives.

And yes foggy I turned the implement around inside its bracket to run the correct way for pushing vs pulling.

 

[RGrizzzz]

We have a 4' I&J tow behind crimper. It does it's job, but doesn't get used a ton.

 

[cbw]

I have a homemade RC I bought 5 years ago. Used it for a couple years. Works fine, but we haven’t used it for 2-3 years. If someone wants it, I’d sell it.


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[bigboreblr]

Mowing g does well. I no or min till early August at camp and labor day at home. Rye or oats are dead by then.

Well leveled and not too rocky, a heavier lawn roller works good too.

I put a sprayer head behind my roller,or at camp a tire drag. 2 birds one stone, if you spray.

I get 5ft plus goldenrod in one field. I drag in one direction no extra weight on the tire drag, then spread seed. Then I add about 150-200lbs of logs on top of the 3 tire drag and go in the opposite direction. Sone years no spray if it's rainy. Does a decent kill, especially with the weight ontop.