Land roller not worth it in Iowa

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Rolling soybeans doesn't pay off in Iowa, according to ISU people.  They admit it has some benefits but not enough to pay.  This is an interesting short paper on it.

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/CropNews/2011/0103alkaisi.htm

[Red Steele]

another fad that came along, and surprisingly got a lot of acolytes to follow.

Interesting statistics in 2010 where the practice seemed to cost yield across all the locations tested.

[kraft-t]

I won't dispute the science but we will keep on doing it.

[idalivered]

just received the same info from my SIL. Him, me , and one other young neighbor were the last "non-rollers" in our neighborhood. Looks like another $45,000 piece of equipment I don't need. I have a cousin that notills and think it helps in that situation. also, many have started to roll ahead of a discripper in the fall. that works well and is fast. gotta find a way to use that big hunk of steel!

[Mike M2692830]

I won't argue the the data on this chart(the one you emailed me). It will be interesting to keep comparing data for more than 2 years for a better comparison. First year I used a fungicide on beans it appeared it didn't pay either. what this chart doesn't show is the extra wear and tear on a cutter bar from stalk balls getting chopped up. Rocks that didn't get picked up are pushed down enough to not get into the head and if one has autosteer on your combine, the ride and cut going at  an angle to spread out trash is better. With a cost of around $5.50(custom rolled), I would think some of that cost is recovered. With enough of them around, ownership is becoming a non issue. This post is from a part roller owner....MIkeM

[idalivered]

good points, mike, but as you read on in the ISU information the real issue isn't the "harvestability", but what rolling does to soil structure, residue retention, and potential erosion. those things have always bothered me more. You'd have to say that looking at a field,post rolling, is looking at a field primed for severe sheet erosion. The biggest positive, more than the rock issue , is that the roller gets rid of all the massive rootballs from the rootworm resistant hybrids we all plant.

[Mike M2692830]

I am not so sure that waiting to roll after the beans have emerged isn't a better idea. I know what you are talking about. It is hard to see all the corn stalks blow off fields and lay in fencelines or ditches. Sometimes rows along these fencelines are gone and that is a loss. With all this negativity about rollers, took the wind out of my sails about inventing a sprayer attachment to put behind a roller so one could apply a pre-emerge and still find the rows to follow...MikeM

[kraft-t]

Do you remember in the past when we worked our ground on the diagonal and those green strips through the yellow Iron Chlorosis patches in our fields. Those green strips were wheel tracks that compacted the soil and those strips did not yellow up like the rest of them did.

I wonder if those rollers are not beneficial in the soybeans in that they firm up the soil a bit. Now prehaps genetics have decreased the iron chlorosis factor but i'm thinking that firming the soil may well be an improvement.

I do know this. We have rolled our beans the last two years and our bean yields have been 59+ bushels per acre as a whole farm average. Yes we have exceeded that in the past on single fields but not on a whole farm average. Heck at 60 bu per acre and $10 per bushel I can almost cash flow.

[idalivered]

since you are having your farms custom farmed, are you paying the operator to roll your soybeans to make his harvest operation easier? I can't deny that it would improve the ease of harvest. No doubt. My main concern is all the resiidue leaving the field not to mention isu's concern with surface compaction and the possibility of erosion from the result. Heck, why do you run a ripper thru the previous year's corn residue(i'm assuming now) if your gonna have him pack it back down anyway? A big tandem disc would do the same thing and be a less costly operation for you.

[jrsiajdranch]

This is an interesting thread for me to read. Having farmed in a different state before coming out here to IOway I think sometimes you guys don't know how good you have it.  Back inMichigan we used to run one of those DMI crumblers. I wish I still had it.  THey would level the ground very nicely breaking up dirt clods and root balls they were not heavy enough to push down big rocks, but those small ones that would make noise going thru the rotor were eliminated.  Also the residue didn't fly over into the neighbors.  We would pull ours right behind the FC and It worked up beutifully.

I know some big custom forage harvestors that will deduct money from their customers bill if the have there hay fields rolled down so as to make the traveling speed in the field to be higher. I go 10 miles an hour now with my chopper. I don't dneed to go faster.  JR