rolling soybeans with big roller?

[knownothingwann]

So, people did roll them but not have quit doing it all together?

[jonno634]

In our area... many still roll there lentils and peas.  WE have stopped,.  😉

Jon

[knownothingwann]

OK, I understand.  Why did you choose to stop?  Were you not seeing the benefit of rolling?

[tensengm]

at what stage do the recommend rolling soybeans post emerge, one of the farm mag had an article about it last year but did not save it

[dolan farms]

Howdy your wondering about the big rollers. Well there have been a number of people in the area that used to use them in the area. But then the local town ships put a fine on using them all have sold them. Well here is the deal. They work well for pushing down rocks and smoothing fields for combining. They have found there isn't much of a yield increase with them. Not even 1 buy average. But the farmers that had them loved the large rollers cause they could combine without worrying about there combines picking up dirt from the root balls. Or worrying about pushing in the wetter conditions. Also it was very fast they could drive the day after they planted they could drive about 12-15 MPH and cover their fields fast. But the major drawback was here where we live we get a lot of wind. And when the wind blows so does you field. I have round baled the corn stalks in the standing crops where the cornstalk drifts had gotten several feet deep. But the 400 bales were sold for a good price. We had one storm come through an the cornstalks had filled in the drainage ditches and the dirt blew so bad that the town ship and county that hired bulldozers to clean out the road ditches so that the water could run in the ditch instead of the field. Also there were a number of backhoes cleaning out the drainage ditches. Now around here most every body uses crumblers on there field cultivators to take care of the root balls and leveling off the high lumps. Also it makes a better seedbed. Or people use crumblers behind their planters. But for pushing the rocks down. The rocks are still there and it costs us about 10 dollars and acre to pick them. If you just let your rocks go it still hurts your planter and tillage equipment and it will still cost you 10 dollars per acre in repair costs yearly.

[MNDave2488825]

In my area of WC MN most everybody with soybeans uses rollers, either rented or owned.  Some custom harvesters will NOT combine a field that has not been rolled.  It is easy to justify spending $3.50 or $4 per acre rental on 12.00 beans.  Most beans are planted after corn, and these tough rootballs nowadays have to be dealt with.  You don't want to run them through the combine, along with small rocks.  Some farmers roll cornfields also, either before or after planting.  

My beans are planted with a 45 foot Hiniker 15" drill.  It is fairly aggressive; even on no-till in wheat stubble it will throw out a few rocks that previously were even with the ground surface.  So we roll all bean acres.  We've seen very little wind damage from blowing.  I have a few sandy knolls that could blow--those areas have no small rocks, so it's easy to just go around them.  Also, wet spots that may have gotten planted, should not be rolled as unwanted compaction may occur.  There's few rocks in those areas anyway.