How much water should I put in my roller? (See Photos)

2wsxcde3

Hi,

I have an old 8 foot long, 30 inch diameter roller. I went rolling the field with it recently but i'm not sure if it was working correctly as i've never rolled a field a before. I was surprised to see that the tyre marks of the tractor (as i was driving) were clearly visible on the section of ground which I had just rolled. Is this normal? See image:



The roller doesn't seem to be any drag on my tractor (MF165) which surprised me. I thought the tractor should be under strain pulling a roller, but of course i've never rolled a field before. I can't see how much water is inside as the entry points are sealed off with pieces of timber, but i do know there is water inside as i can hear is slushing around inside:



I have 2 questions:

I am pulling this roller with an MF165. How much water should be inside a roller of this size being pulled by a tractor of this strength?

Also, any advice on how to remove these timber plugs and then seal them back up again after i've put some more water inside?(assuming water needs to be put in of course).

Thanks,
2wsxcde3

dohc turbo2

that ground looks wet , lot of farmers not fond of the roller , I wouldn't be using a roller this time of year would only seal the ground for winter , my uncle would only roll when ground was dry , less compaction, rollers easier to pull when full I'd imagine a half full roller a pain with the water moving

Mooooo

Id say cutting the rushes and or spraying them would be a better use of diesel.. Roller really only used here when reseeding., occasionally on silage ground and maybe onlythe headlands. If ground is wet only does more harm than good.

49801

Wood plugs were a bodge. Should be those steel threaded caps that have an expanding thread last few turns to seal.

Timing is important for rolling. Too dry and ground won't have enough give/plasticity to work. Too wet and your doing damage or picking up a layer of mud on roller making it pointless

How much to fill.... 3/4 full is enough I'd say

lakill Farm

I have the roller full. 1400l off water. Weighting about 2t over a 9ft drum.

She is a little wide on the road at almost 10ft

2wsxcde3

Mooooo wrote: »

Id say cutting the rushes and or spraying them would be a better use of diesel.. Roller really only used here when reseeding., occasionally on silage ground and maybe onlythe headlands. If ground is wet only does more harm than good.

The rushes ARE sprayed. I'm just letting them die away by themselves rather than cutting them. The ground was slightly wetter than I wanted alright, but I said i'd give it a go. I might wait again until its slightly drier.

The field is VERY poached. When it rains, the field holds alot of water even though it is well drained. Hasn't been rolled in years. It does need to be rolled.

I just used an online calculator. Here it is: http://www.online-calculators.co.uk/volumetric/cylindervolume.php According to that calculator, the roller has a capacity of 1090 liters. As 1 liter equals 1 kg, then that means the roller would weight about 1 tonne if i filled it completely with water.

Will a MF165 pull a 1 tonne roller do you think?

2wsxcde3

dohc turbo2 wrote: »

I wouldn't be using a roller this time of year would only seal the ground for winter

What harm does "sealing" the ground do. The field is very poached, it holds alot of water on the surface even though the field is well drained. The idea of "sealing" it and keeping it dry sounds like a good thing to me.

croot

2wsxcde3 wrote: »

The rushes ARE sprayed. I'm just letting them die away by themselves rather than cutting them. The ground was slightly wetter than I wanted alright, but I said i'd give it a go. I might wait again until its slightly drier.

The field is VERY poached. When it rains, the field holds alot of water even though it is well drained. Hasn't been rolled in years. It does need to be rolled.

I just used an online calculator. Here it is: http://www.online-calculators.co.uk/volumetric/cylindervolume.php According to that calculator, the roller has a capacity of 4300 liters. As 1 liter equals 1 kg, then that means the roller would weight 4.3 tonnes if i filled it completely with water.

Will a MF165 pull a 4.3 tonne roller do you think?

First off don't roll unless it's drier or you will do damage. In wet conditions you compress the soil losing the air out of it and that will actually make things worse. I know from experience

Second the 165 will have no bother with a full roller. I would still us the 165 for rolling even though I have a 4 wheel drive. Only problem would be in wet ground and you shouldn't be rolling if it's wet.

2wsxcde3

croot wrote: »

First off don't roll unless it's drier or you will do damage. In wet conditions you compress the soil losing the air out of it and that will actually make things worse. I know from experience

Second the 165 will have no bother with a full roller. I would still us the 165 for rolling even though I have a 4 wheel drive. Only problem would be in wet ground and you shouldn't be rolling if it's wet.

Fair enough. I will fill it completely with water which will give it a weight of 1 tonne and wait for a drier day to roll it. Thank you.

tractorporn

2wsxcde3 wrote:

What harm does "sealing" the ground do. The field is very poached, it holds alot of water on the surface even though the field is well drained. The idea of "sealing" it and keeping it dry sounds like a good thing to me.

Very basically sealing the top layer of the soil will stop air getting into the soil. This is very bad for growth as the roots of the plant need oxygen and for soil life earthworm etc. As other have sad compaction is very bad and very hard to undo the damage. Rolling only done here in the spring.

dohc turbo2

tractorporn wrote: »

Very basically sealing the top layer of the soil will stop air getting into the soil. This is very bad for growth as the roots of the plant need oxygen and for soil life earthworm etc. As other have sad compaction is very bad and very hard to undo the damage. Rolling only done here in the spring.

yep and where will the water go if land is flat , as was said to me once it be like trying to drink a pint with ur mouth closed

2wsxcde3

dohc turbo2 wrote: »

yep and where will the water go if land is flat , as was said to me once it be like trying to drink a pint with ur mouth closed

What do you mean? Are you saying a field should be rolled if it is flat?

dohc turbo2

2wsxcde3 wrote: »

What do you mean? Are you saying a field should be rolled if it is flat?

No roll in the right conditions and weather,

Who2

Fill the roller with waste oil from any garage. Get new proper steel plugs for the ends and you'll never need to empty it again. It's way too late in the year for rolling. Your wasting your time at the moment. Pull the roller up onto a couple of blocks on each side and keep the plug hole to the top for filling, it'll make life a lot easier and no sloshing.

2wsxcde3

Who2 wrote: »

Fill the roller with waste oil from any garage. Get new proper steel plugs for the ends and you'll never need to empty it again. It's way too late in the year for rolling. Your wasting your time at the moment. Pull the roller up onto a couple of blocks on each side and keep the plug hole to the top for filling, it'll make life a lot easier and no sloshing.

Where can i get steel plugs? I doubt if steel plugs would just neatly screw into the roller openings due to rust. I presume such plugs need to be screwed in.

lakill Farm

Who2 wrote: »

Fill the roller with waste oil from any garage. Get new proper steel plugs for the ends and you'll never need to empty it again. It's way too late in the year for rolling. Your wasting your time at the moment. Pull the roller up onto a couple of blocks on each side and keep the plug hole to the top for filling, it'll make life a lot easier and no sloshing.

It's difficult to get 1000/1500 litres of waste oil now. I tried to get motor oil or even cooking /veg oil and I was wasting my time

Attie

[/quote]It's difficult to get 1000/1500 litres of waste oil now. I tried to get motor oil or even cooking /veg oil and I was wasting my time[/quote]

All goes for recycling €100 1000 lts.

lakill Farm

Attie wrote: »

It's difficult to get 1000/1500 litres of waste oil now. I tried to get motor oil or even cooking /veg oil and I was wasting my time[/quote]

All goes for recycling €100 1000 lts.[/quote]

E100 to buy it ?

I would still swap it for oil now and need 500/1000l for a winter project also

J.O. Farmer

lakill Farm wrote: »

It's difficult to get 1000/1500 litres of waste oil now. I tried to get motor oil or even cooking /veg oil and I was wasting my time

All goes for recycling €100 1000 lts.[/quote]

E100 to buy it ?

I would still swap it for oil now and need 500/1000l for a winter project also[/quote]

I'd say cost to get recycled.

There's probably a lot of regulations around it too where they have to show where it went for recycling so it'd be hard to get that amount of waste oil.

rangler1

lakill Farm wrote: »

It's difficult to get 1000/1500 litres of waste oil now. I tried to get motor oil or even cooking /veg oil and I was wasting my time

Why bother with oil, I thought rust needed oxygen to happen and a roller is airtight, my roller is 40 years old and still perfect,

Needles73

rangler1 wrote: »

Why bother with oil, I thought rust needed oxygen to happen and a roller is airtight, my roller is 40 years old and still perfect,

There will be oxygen along with the water....

rangler1

Needles73 wrote: »

There will be oxygen along with the water....

would the rust not just use whatever oxygen is there in the first few weeks,
Didn't spend too long is school so wouldn't really know the science, anyway my own roller would confirm my thought.....on the other hand the exterior of my roller isn't rusted much either so maybe just good steel.

dohc turbo2

I always taught it was encase the water froze and did damage to the roller

PN14

OP posters above are correct in that ground just looks a little wet for rolling. Rolling is a trade off between closing up poached ground and actually compacting the ground too much that water just lodges above the soil. There's probably only a couple of days per year that might suit to roll and even at that you might find that some areas of the field are either too dry or too wet.

Reason you are leaving the tyre marks behind you is that the clumps at the base of the rushes in your picture are keeping the roller off the ground at each end.
In your picture heavy rush clumps in the middle of the roller means that the roller isn't applying equal pressure across the barrel on the roller

I agree with you that on heavy ground that is badly poached sometimes your better off rolling accepting the additional compaction in order to close the poached areas as it takes forever for ground to dry when poached holes are full of water.

MFdaveIreland

That field looks too wet to ensure rolling in the first place I a 165 is leaving tracks. I'd say wait until may June if the ground nhas rushes as I assume its boggy. Some of those rollers are heavy enough on their own and mostly only water filled to rolled really dry ground after ploughing or rolling cereals or grass red that need good seed soil contact.

Attie

Sorry folks didn't explain too well.
The recycling company pay €100 for 1000 liters of oil along with cert saying it went for recycling.
As an aside had a cousin who process cooking oil it ran his jeep.

White Clover

Attie wrote: »

Sorry folks didn't explain too well.
The recycling company pay €100 for 1000 liters of oil along with cert saying it went for recycling.
As an aside had a cousin who process cooking oil it ran his jeep.

Op. Forget the rolling and put a few Sheep on it. They will level off the poached ground.

Attie

White Clover wrote: »

Attie wrote: »

Sorry folks didn't explain too well.
The recycling company pay €100 for 1000 liters of oil along with cert saying it went for recycling.
As an aside had a cousin who process cooking oil it ran his jeep.

Op.  Forget the rolling and put a few Sheep on it. They will level off the poached ground.

and earn a few yo yos.

Who2

Head closer for the border lakill and you'll find plenty of waste oil. The oils to stop the roller splitting with frost.

rangler1

MFdaveIreland wrote: »

That field looks too wet to ensure rolling in the first place I a 165 is leaving tracks. I'd say wait until may June if the ground nhas rushes as I assume its boggy. Some of those rollers are heavy enough on their own and mostly only water filled to rolled really dry ground after ploughing or rolling cereals or grass red that need good seed soil contact.

A full roller is near the same weight as the tractor, the weight of the roller is spread over 8ft where as the tractor is spread over 3ft,...... roller has less impact than the tractor,
an empty roller is useless

2wsxcde3

Who2 wrote: »

The oils to stop the roller splitting with frost.

If i fill the roller completely with water could it split the roller when it freezes? What is a safe limit to fill the roller with water? - 3/4 full? I'll be leaving the roller outdoors all year round.

Who2

2wsxcde3 wrote: »

If i fill the roller completely with water could it split the roller when it freezes? What is a safe limit to fill the roller with water? - 3/4 full? I'll be leaving the roller outdoors all year round.

Fill the roller completly when using. Put in anti freeze if you have to but the oil works best imo. A half filled roller is useless.

2wsxcde3

Who2 wrote: »

Fill the roller completly when using. Put in anti freeze if you have to but the oil works best imo. A half filled roller is useless.

I have kept all my old used antifreeze in drums around the farm. Didn't want to pay to get rid of it and didn't want to pour it in the field. Was wondering what i was going to do with it. Looks like its going to get a good use afterall!