We were invited to attend an impromptu field walk at Villa Maria looking at a Braun Roller Crimper (ActiRoll) in action, hosted by Cam at Villa Maria and Dave Forward from TRS. Alex and Olivia were able to attend and brought back news and pictures.
In the vineyard every twelve rows a planted strip of a colourful mix including mustard, buckwheat and phacelia is grown to encourage beneficial insects like lacewings. This crop had become too tall, and was interfering with other orchard operations, so was being roller crimped (rather than mown), with the aim of keeping some of the beneficial insects and get some regrowth in the weeks ahead.
Terminating cover crops using a roller crimper has been suggested for the regenerative treatment in the Carbon Positive trial, to minimise the use of herbicides. In a cropping scenario we would be aiming to have no regrowth of the cover crop, which can be achieved by applying more weight to the implement.
How much would we need on a 2-metre wide machine? We tried terminating our oat/lupin/vetch cover crop by mulching, which result in a number of oat plants being pushed over and laid flat by the mulcher body. It wasn’t a total success, but maybe a crimping roller will do a better job.
