[Fishyhaddock]

Hi,
The weather up here in Aberdeenshire has been great of late and has suddenly caused a lot of people to be out with their tractors and rollers on the fields. I was just wondering exactly what rolling the fields does to the grass if any one could fill me in?  Of course I understand that it must help too improve the grass but how exactly and would it be worth investing in a roller myself for 17 acres.

Thanks in advance.      Fishy. 

[robert waddell]

the roller presses the stones into the ground eliminating damage to machinery and sealling in moisture for the root structure and the artistic affect on the countryside with light and dark strips

[Haylo-peapod]

How often should you roll?  I have heard that if you do it every year it is bad for the field??

[robert waddell]

so the farmers round here have been doing it wrong for generations

[old ploughman]

The farm where I am doing some work at the moment do try to avoid rolling. They aerated (sward slitter) their silage and grazing fields about 3 weeks ago which always disturbs stones. Rolling the ground would have negated much of the benefits of the aerating so they had a gang of stone pickers in who manually collect the stones that are sitting on the surface to avoid causing damage to the harvesting machinery.

[smudger]

Don't know why the proper farmers do it, but anyone with large animals (especially horses) need to roll to flatten the poached and churned up areas.  If you can rotate with sheep they can flatten the land down. Be warned steel prices are so high that new rollers are not cheap and cheap ones are not heavy (you really need to compare weights from different manufacturers). if you are not sure you really need one, keep an eye on farm sales. Second hand prices from dealers are not much lower than new and you don't get shiny new paint.  Agri dealers tend to have 8' plus in stock which can be too much for compacts, so you can't really get good deals on smaller sizes.  My experience to date, anyhow.

[dgr]

rolling is usually done after harrowing & over-seeding which is another subject but generally on its own or with chain harrowing its done to push down any stones or mole hills etc, firm up the ground a little  and gently crush the crowns of the grass which encourages the grass to spread and grow more rapidly, Cambridge rollers are just as good on grass as ballast rollers which tend to leave a panning effect, you can fill ballast rollers with water to add more weight if the ground is hard, and if you got stony ground a good time to get off the tractor when you spot it and pick up the big stone and put it on a tray fixed to the roller. we used to do nice stripes up and down but that tends to compact the ends of the fields where you turn so now we go round and round the edges in a circle, doesn't look as pretty but more sensible apparently