Another update--the stalk roller, a year later.

Last year I posted a picture of the roller I built to roll cornstalks before raking them. It has been in use for a year now and covered quite a few acres. So for it has been a success. I do not want to go back to raking un rolled stalks. We tried something different this fall and used just the roller on recently harvested earlage stalks to try to speed up the dry down. I’m not sure how much that dry down was improved, but I got really positive comments from another custom operator whose field I rolled, them he raked it himself. He was very pleased with how much easier the stalks rake up after they are rolled. Pictures are from this spring when I baled some stalks.

 

I was hoping to build an entirely new roller for this fall, that did not happen.  I had to add some reinforcement to the wing hinges as I found they could not handle the force of the wing folding cylinders forcing the wings down rather than lifting them up.  

Another update--the stalk roller, a year later.