Many farmers struggled to properly consolidate this year’s bulky first-cut in the clamp. What’s the answer? Well, you could knock up your own compactor.

Martin Henkemeier is a qualified industrial metalworking foreman and hires out his roller. It needs a minimum of 140hp.

We regularly encountered the same problem — in dry grass our small-diameter roller would end up bulldozing the crop and create lumps. This gave me the idea to build a roller with as big a diameter as possible.

I managed to find a 7.0m length of pipe online for around €800. The outer diameter is 1.02m, and the pipe has a wall thickness of 12.5mm. The first step was to cut a 2.80m long section. I had the 16cm high roller rings laser-cut from 15mm steel and welded them onto the pipe, a total of ten rows spaced at 25cm apart. This gives the roller a diameter of more than 1.34m.

White plastic rollers on the corners protect the compactor when working alongside the clamp wall.

As well as the pipe end caps I welded two partitions into the pipe. Each of the three chambers holds about 650 litres of water for up to 2,000kg of extra ballast. I made the frame from 200 x 100 x 8mm rectangular box section and two 300 x 25mm flat plates for bolting the bearing blocks to. The roller has a full length shaft rather than stub axles.

The holes in the rings were laser-cut. Four segments make up one complete ring. There are a total of ten rings (left).

For the 60cm side-shift to the right and a 40cm of travel to the left, I mounted the top frame — complete with three-point linkage headstock from an old Köckerling cultivator — onto the main frame using four downward-facing channel sections. Four 40mm rolls bolted underneath the main frame provide guidance. Two double-acting rams look after the side-shift movement. Empty, the roller weighs around 2,800kg. It cost about €6,000 to make.

The three-point linkage frame is from a Köckerling cultivator.

Martin Henkemeier

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