How much water to put in roller

[Northeastfarmer]

Dad made our roller probably 30 years ago and filled it with water and no antifreeze….it’s still going as it was now…

 

[Bob c]

TikTok - Make Your Day

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[RH15LEW]

What sort of ratio would one use for antifreeze and water?

 

[ollie989898]

I wouldn't fill a water roller with concrete. You'll end up with a bent or broken centre shaft.

I'm not convinced a lot of them will stick it, either. Water kinder on them I think.

 

[ollie989898]

How , it will make the roll structure far mor more rigid

Added weight means the whole thing has to work harder and the strain looks for the weakest parts. Also concrete is pants at anything except at compressive forces.

 

[serf]

What sort of ratio would one use for antifreeze and water?

I wouldn't bother and just use water , can even have an ibc under a downpipe with a ton of free water ready ,

Empty it in winter

and if you got wet spring and it's to heavy when it is full it's no big deal to drop it out where as antifreeze would be a waste ,

Could Even store it in the straw rick over winte and leave water in

 

[kiwi pom]

Just used to fill the one I used to pull

On

Often on an 8000 Deere too as pictured tractor wasn't really big enough

 

[M-J-G]

I wouldn't fill a water roller with concrete. You'll end up with a bent or broken centre shaft.

We've got one that's been filled with concrete for about 30 years and it's still fine

 

[davidroberts30]

We've got one that's been filled with concrete for about 30 years and it's still fine

Same here
New wooden blocks every 4 or 5 years that's all

 

[Derrick Hughes]

The Religion of rolling
Do I really need to roll
Am I using the correct roll

 

[bluebell]

Wasnt it, back in the "good old days", (1970s-80s), that the new ones made by Archie Kidd, made with concrete filled from new? Anyone got/had one, we used to borrow one many years ago from a dairy farmer up the main road from here?

 

[bluebell]

This year, has been the wettest spring ever, id bet, the grass land will dry if its stays dry with a slight warm breeze for a few days, but we are just not getting those few days?

 

[sheepdogtrail]

Just used to fill the one I used to pull
View attachment 1170802

On
View attachment 1170803

Often on an 8000 Deere too as pictured tractor wasn't really big enough

That's a roller.

 

[BRB John]

The Religion of rolling
Do I really need to roll
Am I using the correct roll

*the religion of grass
Should I use a tine harrow? What about chain harrow? Or an aerator? What kind of aerator? Should I roll?
And when?

When it comes to grass management I've never seen such a diverse range of opinions for optimal grass growth.

Best just to hope and pray

 

[Dry Rot]

I am worrying. Logic tells me not to fill the roller up to the top with water (or any liquid for that matter) but I always do. Isn't this to do with the incompressability of fluids but not of gasses? So, if filled 100% with water, on a hot day that water is going to expand blowing out the sides of the roller? But a small quantity of air can be compressed. But then doesn't steel have the same rate of expansion as water? Life gets SO complicated!

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Grassland is perfectly suited to looking after itself , itswhat man does that couses the damage , every field is like its own book , you need to read that book before you do anything ,
All my silage fields will be getting is a roll around the headlands , the tack sheep tend to drag the odd stone from the hedge bottoms
I feal sorry for those fields that have been poached in the Autumn only to find as soon as the spring into life in the spring the nasty farmer crushes the life out of them with a 10 ton roller
@Sam said something last year that he did not use a flat roll on grass seeds , I've always used a flatt roll thinking it's important to get seeds in firm , I got caught with last years torrents of rain , would have been far more successful using a ring roll , especially on the turnips

 

[Exfarmer]

I am worrying. Logic tells me not to fill the roller up to the top with water (or any liquid for that matter) but I always do. Isn't this to do with the incompressability of fluids but not of gasses? So, if filled 100% with water, on a hot day that water is going to expand blowing out the sides of the roller? But a small quantity of air can be compressed. But then doesn't steel have the same rate of expansion as water? Life gets SO complicated!

fear more worrying with a water filled roller expansion is frost, filling with 50% antifreeze could be expensive

 

[Optimus]

Grassland is perfectly suited to looking after itself , itswhat man does that couses the damage , every field is like its own book , you need to read that book before you do anything ,
All my silage fields will be getting is a roll around the headlands , the tack sheep tend to drag the odd stone from the hedge bottoms
I feal sorry for those fields that have been poached in the Autumn only to find as soon as the spring into life in the spring the nasty farmer crushes the life out of them with a 10 ton roller
@Sam said something last year that he did not use a flat roll on grass seeds , I've always used a flatt roll thinking it's important to get seeds in firm , I got caught with last years torrents of rain , would have been far more successful using a ring roll , especially on the turnips

All my silage ground will get rolled that's after I've harrowed them but that won't be until it drys up a bit.

Often after a full reseed I find the best bits of the field are the headlands which have been turned on a few times.use a flat roll prefer it to a Cambridge.

Bought a Watson rota-roll best 6.5k I spent in a while.heavy too around 5+ tonne.

 

[Dry Rot]

Grassland is perfectly suited to looking after itself , itswhat man does that couses the damage , every field is like its own book , you need to read that book before you do anything ,
All my silage fields will be getting is a roll around the headlands , the tack sheep tend to drag the odd stone from the hedge bottoms
I feal sorry for those fields that have been poached in the Autumn only to find as soon as the spring into life in the spring the nasty farmer crushes the life out of them with a 10 ton roller
@Sam said something last year that he did not use a flat roll on grass seeds , I've always used a flatt roll thinking it's important to get seeds in firm , I got caught with last years torrents of rain , would have been far more successful using a ring roll , especially on the turnips

Again, it depends on your land. I am on sand here and I envy you your stones (seriously!).

Soon after I moved in 40 years ago, an agricultural adviser told me the best roller was the tractor tyre, literally driving round and round the field putting one wheel mark next to another. A heavy roller, he said, just pushes a little ridge ahead of the roller not compressing much at all. He was right about that, certainly with dry sand. But timing to get the soil moist during establishment is probably more important for me.

I've been out with chain harrows and the roller because two years fallow encouraged the moles and the fields were like a relief map of the Somme. The only time to get them flat is now when the sand is reasonably damp. Sand here is firm when it is dry and I have been able to drive over all the fields with the Land Rover most of the winter.

 

[DrWazzock]

I find if the roller isn’t filled well up then the sloshing makes an annoying jolt on the tractor drawbar.
Don’t think we’ll be using it all this spring. It would be like rolling pastry.