Developing a guide for farmers or local machine shops to build an affordable roller-crimper by repurposing tillage equipment

View the project final report

Commodities

• Agronomic: annual ryegrass, corn, millet, oats, peas (field, cowpeas), soybeans, vetches

Practices

• Crop Production: cover crops
• Production Systems: agroecosystems

The latest SARE cover crop survey reports a doubling of cover crop acres over the past 5 years, which has improved soil health on cropland acres. However, farmers regularly rely on disturbances like tillage or herbicides to terminate cover. Roller-crimping is a soil health conscience alternative termination method of popular cover crops, e.g., cereal rye. Insufficient availability of roller-crimpers in many NCR-SARE states coupled with the expense of new machines ($32,500 for a 20 ft crimper) are hurdles preventing the adoption of this soil health practice.

To address this problem, Ecdysis Foundation collaborated with farmers in eastern South Dakota to develop a do-it-yourself guide for repurposing a disc into a low-cost roller-crimper (Figure 1). The supply cost of this machine, $5,883, was 18% of a new brand-name crimper of similar size. Detailed plans accompany a series of how-to videos hosted on Ecdysis’ YouTube channel. Our shop-built crimper was field tested over two field seasons to determine it's durability and efficacy to terminate the region's most abundantly planted cover crop, cereal rye. The six local farmers that field tested our roller-crimper reported the machine design functioned proficiently and held-up well in the field. One design improvement noted during field testing was the need for an axle shield to prevent cover crops from wrapping around the roller drum axles between the drum and hanging bracket. This crimper design proved to be efficient at terminating a cereal rye cover crop, with a 90 - 95% kill rate when plants were at the appropriate stage for termination with crimping.

This project advances SARE’s mission of transforming agriculture along ecological principles by examining an innovative solution to reduce costs for farmers wanting to adopt roller-crimping, while also providing vital research on the potential for the tool to terminate popular cover crops.

1. Work with local farmers to build a simple, affordable roller-crimper from a recycled disc and salvaged tillage equipment parts.
2. Record the construction of a roller-crimper, and present the process as a freely available instructional guide and how-to video series.
3. Establish research and demonstration plots at local farms to study the effectiveness of roller-crimping various cover crops.
4. Conduct in-person and online outreach and education activities with Ecdysis and community partners, showcasing the roller-crimper for farmers interested in reduced-disturbance cover crop termination.