Demonstrating an Innovative Commercial-Scale Roller Crimper for High-Biomass Cover Crop Termination

This award is for SusChes and project partners to have a 30-foot roller crimper built and demonstrated on farms in the Northern Neck to evaluate the agronomic performance of the roller crimper for yields, reducing soil temperature, improved soil moisture retention, and weed suppression. The specific objectives of this project are:
•Work with USDA ARS engineers to scale-up their roller crimper to a width that is suitable for commercial row crop production in the Virginia Tidewater area (12-rows, 30 ft.)
•Measure performance (including equipment performance, agronomic, and soil health outcomes) for at least two growing seasons through field trials and on-farm commercial deployment of the equipment at Robb Hinton’s Cedar Plains Farm to terminate high-biomass rye in commercial row crop farm setting with existing farm equipment on approximately 150-300 acres per year (for at least two years of the project.)
•Share results with producers, agronomy, and conservation professionals through publications, a fact sheet, field day events, and farmer meetings.
•If successful, support expanded adoption in Virginia and throughout the Chesapeake Bay region by allowing producers to try the roller crimper on their farms. This approach supports expanded adoption of NRCS conservation practices including: conservation cropping rotation (328), residue and tillage management no-till (329), cover crop (340), residue and tillage management reduced till (345), and Pest Management Conservation System (595).