Field day will explore two farmers’ experience using a custom-built roller-crimper on cereal rye
Cover crops are an increasingly common sight on Iowa farm fields, but roller-crimpers, an implement that can help extend some of the benefits of cover crops offer by letting farmers delay termination, are still a rarity in the Midwest.
“Roller-crimpers aren’t that common in the U.S., but they’ve been used for about three decades in South America,” says Billy Sammons, who farms at FC Hunter IRRV Trust near Churdan. “With roller-crimpers, you can let cover crop biomass grow taller and longer into the spring than what a conventional farmer might do.”
He says this extra cover crop growth extends the soil and water quality benefits cover crops provide while helping to suppress weeds and retain soil moisture. He adds that, while many university-led roller-crimper experiments have focused on organic systems, conventional farmers who want to reduce their use of herbicides have also found roller-crimpers to be helpful.
Sammons, along with George Naylor, a neighbor who also farms, will showcase the results of their own experiment with using a roller-crimper ahead of planting soybeans at a Practical Farmers of Iowa field day they are hosting on Wednesday, June 15, from 10 am to 1 pm, near Churdan.
Sammons and Naylor received a Sustainable Education Research and Education (SARE) grant from North Central SARE Farmer-Rancher program to test using a roller-crimper to terminate cover crops in corn-soybean production systems, and to determine how an organic bio-soil enhancer affects soil properties and plant health.
The event – “Effects of a Custom-Made Roller-Crimper on Rye Cover” – is free to attend, and will feature a lunch provided by local chefs Tony Pille and Chris Place. RSVPs are requested for the meal. Please contact Lauren Zastrow at lauren@practicalfarmers.org or (515) 232-5661 by Friday, June 10. The field day will take place at Naylor’s farm, located at 1204 120th St, a few miles northeast of Churdan.
The event is sponsored by Blue River Hybrids Organic Seed, Greene County Soil and Water Conservation District, Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES), North Central SARE and Organic Crop Improvement Association International.
Guests will see a field on Naylor’s farm with soybeans emerging from a cereal rye cover crop terminated with the roller-crimper a few weeks earlier. They will get to help assess how well the roller-crimper did at terminating the cover crop, and whether the resulting straw mulch is providing weed suppression.
Attendees will also get to see the roller-crimper, which was manufactured locally by Minnehan Metal Works, and hear from the builder, Anthony Minnehan. Other speakers will include Ajay Nair and Kathleen Delate, with Iowa State University’s Department of Horticulture, who will share details on 10 years of experience terminating cover crops using a roller-crimper in vegetable and grain production.
Sammons is in the process of transitioning to organic certification and is incorporating many no-till principles. Naylor raises corn, soybeans, oats and alfalfa, and is transitioning to organic on part of his farm. In preparation for the organic transition, both farmers have recently added buffers and pollinator strips as Conservation Reserve Program quail habitat to attract beneficial insects. Sammons has begun beekeeping with two hives.
