Ryan Schmid and Mike Bredeson know that sustainable farming often hinges on practical, affordable tools. That’s why they led a recent project to address the high cost of roller-crimpers. Roller-crimpers are used for terminating cover crops without tillage or herbicides, but commercial models can cost over $30,000, a cost too high for many farmers. Schmid and his team set out to change that.
With support from a $39,996 NCR-SARE Partnership grant, the team at the Ecdysis Foundation in South Dakota repurposed old tillage equipment to build a fully functional roller-crimper for just under $6,000. They didn’t stop there. To ensure others could replicate the design, they created a detailed construction guide and a series of how-to videos, making the innovation accessible to farmers and local machine shops across the region. Field testing with six South Dakota farmers over two growing seasons confirmed the tool’s effectiveness and durability, with only minor tweaks needed. In 2022-2023, 161 acres of cereal rye cover crops were terminated using their manufactured roller-crimper.
"Farmers regularly rely on disturbances like tillage or herbicides to terminate cover. Roller-crimping is a soil health-conscious alternative termination method of popular cover crops, e.g., cereal rye. Insufficient availability of roller-crimpers in many NCR-SARE states, coupled with the expense of new machines ($24,500 for a 30 ft crimper), are hurdles preventing the adoption of this soil health practice," said Schmid. “As a result of developing accessible roller-crimper plans, cooperating farmers began to consider crimping as a feasible alternative to tillage and herbicides for cover crop termination.”
Dig Deeper
This document contains the plans and part dimensions for a DIY roller-crimper build.
The team also developed a six-part video series on building a custom roller-crimper machine.
NCR-SARE’s Partnership grant program starts accepting proposals in August.
Want more information? See the related SARE grant:
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.