Looking to get me a Lawn Roller

[pnowacki]

Hi all,

I've got some pretty bumpy pasture that I would like to roll out smooth to create a 6 hole country golf course. Anyone have any recommendations on a roller that will attach to my New Holland TC30?

Any additional thoughts about the whole concept would be much appreciated as well..

Pete

 

[jbrumberg]

Pnowacki:

I do not think a roller will work for what you want to do unless your pasture is only minimally "bumpy". I would think and I am certainly no expert on this topic that you need to first disc and then harrow or run a tandom/double disk your pasture. There are some TBN members that do this type of work for a living. Hopefully they will post. Good Luck- Jay

 

[jdbower]

I've got an Agri-Fab lawn roller and I agree that it's unlikely to be your only solution. A lawn roller will work great and smashing down mole trails or dealing with frost upheaval, but on existing hard-packed dirt it doesn't do much. I typically use it on small areas, first I'll till up the soil, then add some extra fill if needed (grass clippings usually), till the clippings in, then use the roller to smooth things out. I've had moderate success with this and I'm sure a little more practice will make it more efficient. Without the tilling step (or using discs or a harrow or SOMETHING to break up the soil) you'd probably spend more in fuel making passes with the roller than it would cost to hire the job out.

 

[Grrrr]

Yep, I'd agree with the other posters that a lawn roller will do hardly anything to solve your problem.

We have a 10' wide 4.5 ton roller that we use on all the silage and hay fields here each year and they are still bumpy as heck. It will only push stones down.

If you want to have a golf course finish you will probably have to regrade the area as others said. A roller might be able to help with flattening the soil down after you seed it.

The little lawn rollers you see on ebay and the like won't do much more than stripe your lawn IMHO.

This is our 'little roller'

 

[pnowacki]

Thanks for your opinions everyone. Looks like I will save a few bucks on a lawn roller tilling and seeding 8 acres is probably beyond my price range for a amatuer hobby golf course.

Just out of curiosity though, how much would we be talking about to hire it out. Its all cut now, no trees to take out, etc. I'd be interested to see just how much we would be talking to redo it all the way it should be.

Thanks for any info.

Pete

 

[dtd24]

Wow no response on your avatar, huh? Looks like a saftey demerit!!

 

[Billy_S]

Speaking just for myself, I have never seen a roller on a golf course.

 

[heymack]

Leave the undulations as that's what makes a golf course. Now to do the greens and tee boxes, first you'd need to build them up and then level with a box blade then roll with a roller.

 

[john_bud]

Thanks for your opinions everyone. Looks like I will save a few bucks on a lawn roller tilling and seeding 8 acres is probably beyond my price range for a amatuer hobby golf course.

Just out of curiosity though, how much would we be talking about to hire it out. Its all cut now, no trees to take out, etc. I'd be interested to see just how much we would be talking to redo it all the way it should be.

Thanks for any info.

Pete

I think that hired out tilling is about the same as hired out rough cutting. Expect 40-100/hour. Size of equipment and local factors make the price quite variable. It's about an acre an hour per pass. Sod bound fields like yours will take 2-3 passes to get it really mixed in good. Typically cut it short and wait a week for the clippings to dry, then till. If you need to add soil amemdments like lime and fertilizer, those should be added just prior to the tilling. Wait a couple weeks for the clippings to break down and weeds to sprout. Then till it again at a 90 degree angle to the first to break up everything. Wait a couple more weeks for more break down and more weed sprouting and give it a final tilling. Then you can broadcast the grass seed and cultipack it down tight. If you have lumps and bumps you should drag the field with a coil of chain link fence or similar to help distribute the high spots to the low spots.

After it sprouts, spray with 2,4D to kill the weeds.

This is a fair amount of work. Some may say over kill, but up front prep is both easier and cheaper than having to fix it later!

Given the amount of work and you already having a tractor, why not buy a KK 60" or 72" tiller and do it yourself? They are about 1200 and 1500 respectively. You can have lime spread by the feed mill for $30 a ton. You probably could use 2-3 tons per acre. They can also spray fertilizer and herbicides cheaper than you can. Attached is a link for culitpacker

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Speaking just for myself, I have never seen a roller on a golf course.

Maybe you're just not old enough

I've got an old 3-section roller that came off of a golf course. Back in the day, it was accepted to roll fairways and approaches to give them "speed". That was when grass was typically longer than todays hybrid grass' after todays modern mowers cut it. That's one of the many ways they get that ball speed now. And now days they aerify what used to be rolled and packed, after research has proven soil compaction is an enemy to healthy turf.

Also, they STILL roll greens from time to time to keep them firm. That varies with soil and climate conditions. Most PGA spec greens these days are built with "engineered dirt" that is primarily sand.