Roller Crimper

[Foggy47]

Here is a pretty good explanation of a roller crimper and one that can be used behind an ATV or UTV. It's an I&J Manufacturing flip over. Not sure of anyone else selling a flip over. It would work pretty nicely with a 3 foot drill....which are quite popular. Kinda important that the sizes match up.....so you dont struggle planting into the direction of terminated crops.

I recently purchased a 6 foot Goliath roller/crimper (3 point mount...or mount to the front loader) and I feel it's the right size for my 5' drill. I think I will be planting green into the rye early summer.....and then crimp the rye shortly after planting. Maybe a few weeks at most.

 

[Skeeter]

Why not try both crimping the day of drilling and a couple weeks after? Crimping and planting in one pass sure looks efficient if a guy can get it to work. Best of luck to you. And I would agree from all I've read and heard, a crimper a foot wider than the drill seems to be ideal.

 

[Foggy47]

Why not try both crimping the day of drilling and a couple weeks after? Crimping and planting in one pass sure looks efficient if a guy can get it to work. Best of luck to you. And I would agree from all I've read and heard, a crimper a foot wider than the drill seems to be ideal.

^ That may be possible at times and it would be kinda fun to operate like that.. But in a woods scenario with irregular plot sizes......there is allot going on when trying to crimp and run the drill at the same time. Compound that with the rye not being ready to crimp when I want to plant. Also, I think it's easier to plant into a standing green crop than to follow the roller/crimper. I dont think there is too much time spent in either event.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Why not try both crimping the day of drilling and a couple weeks after? Crimping and planting in one pass sure looks efficient if a guy can get it to work. Best of luck to you. And I would agree from all I've read and heard, a crimper a foot wider than the drill seems to be ideal.

The idea with drilling first is to get the seed in the ground sooner (thus increasing yield) before anthesis of the cover crop is taking place where it is ready to crimp. Not sure it would mater all that much in a food plot situation though.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I’ve heard it said that it’s harder to get a good kill with a roller crimper up here in MN if you’re trying to plant something like brassicas in July as the summer growth might not be as mature as desired. Any truth to that?

 

[Foggy47]

I’ve heard it said that it’s harder to get a good kill with a roller crimper up here in MN if you’re trying to plant something like brassicas in July as the summer growth might not be as mature as desired. Any truth to that?

I suppose that may depend on what crop or weeds it is that your trying to kill. The primary purpose of the roller / crimper (for my needs) is to kill the winter rye crops planted in the prior fall. To kill the WR mechanically.....timing and technique are somewhat critical. In northern MN the rye will start to go to seed in mid to late June. The rye is more easily terminated when the seed heads still have some moisture in them.....but are starting to harden up (i.e. the dough stage).

I'm not sure what you may try to terminate prior to planting brassicas? .....but that might be too late for winter rye.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I’ve heard it said that it’s harder to get a good kill with a roller crimper up here in MN if you’re trying to plant something like brassicas in July as the summer growth might not be as mature as desired. Any truth to that?

I guess it all depends on what your planting into. A crimper isn't going to kill most grasses and weeds, I'm certain on that.

 

[yoderjac]

I guess it all depends on what your planting into. A crimper isn't going to kill most grasses and weeds, I'm certain on that.

That is why I haven't invested in one. I really like being able to avoid gly for burndown, but it limits when you plant. They work great for things like WR if you get it at the right stage of development. For weeds, some yes and some no. So, if I'm a commercial farmer planting a winter cover crop of WR and planting at the same time every spring, it makes sense. On the other hand, less so for me doing deer management. My timing and crops can vary depending on my objective. I do use a lot of WR, but mix it with CC which it isn't going to terminate well. At the right stage of development, a cultipacker will terminate WR. I've used one to roll WR before and then drilled into it. I just rolled 1/2 the field on direction and the other half the opposite direction and drilled the same. It worked pretty well for planting a bean/light corn mix.

Thanks,

Jack