# Circle C conditioning rolls



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I know that Circle C offers complete conditioning system that uses air bags instead of the factory tensioning......I'm not really interested in that due to the cost but I think I have read on here where you take your rollers out of your machine and send them to Circle C where they resurface them. I was wondering how much this would actually improve the dry down of the hay versus stock rollers? Thinking about doing this to a NH 499 if it would improve dry down a good bit faster.....not sure what the cost would be though and if it would be worth spending on a 499?


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Depends on the condition of the rest of the 499. I have em in a NH1431 and from now on won't make hay without em.

I have a vet coming and buying hay for his brood mares, he does embryo transfers, he's paying a premium for my round bales as he likes it and he says its well worth both the drive and the premium. Can't be having bad hay cause any abortions. The biggest thing I've found about the Circle C's is if my Harvest Tec says it's 16% moisture then I have just about a zero chance of dusty bales. I think since the Circle C's crack the entire length of the stem the Harvest Tec is getting more of a true reading of the moisture.

Before the Circle C's I'd treat all my hay no matter how dry with 4lbs/ton of propionic acid, since going to Circle C's I've quit using propionic, went to Hayguard and only apply it if the Harvest Tec says it's 18% or above and I don't have problems with dusty hay.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

It's been a while since I talked to the Circle C guy but I think he said if you send him your rollers they have to be stripped down and trued or cleaned up on a lathe before they can be resurfaced with their rubber. He told me that many companies use very thin wall tubing compared to what they use on their custom made rollers which use I think he said 1/4" thick wall tubing. He said in the truing up process some rollers can get really thin. We were asking about getting a set for the old Kuhn, it was one model that they didn't make custom rollers for because their wasn't enough demand for them and he didn't have all the dimensions for them. They're very knowledgable people on this stuff.


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## discbinedr (Mar 4, 2013)

Recover will set you back around 3k. I'm not certain that they're the same pattern as the airbag system.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

That's about what he quoted us 2 years ago.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

I've been running the b&d rolls with stock pressure for a while. They have held up well and help a lot. Performance hasn't been as good as Marty's. With standard pressure I can still squeeze hard enough to separate leaves from alfalfa if I set it too high so I don't think the air would help much in my situation.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

The 499 I'm looking at buying is in very good shape.

Since the recovered rolls would be running in contact with each other will it be hard on the stock tensioning and possibly damage something?

If I would end up going a different route than I'm thinking and buy a Hesston discbine with steel rollers how do the Circle C's compare in dry down to the stock steel rolls. If the Circle C's would still dry quicker could the steel rolls be recovered?


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## discbinedr (Mar 4, 2013)

Steel rolls can be recovered if you remove the flutes. I would prefer the rubber in legumes,especially alfalfa, grass IDK.


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

Here's what I don't understand about rollers - and what I "assume" about them - as I'm no expert.

It would seem to me that any roller set for contact or near contact - maybe a matchbook cover thickness apart - would crush all hay coming through the rollers. I should think that in thick hay - these rollers are separating to some extend - else everything would jam up front. So you got rollers mashing hay and hay mashing hay - ultimately everything is getting wringed out like the clothes going through rollers on an old washing machine.

Theories can abound (including my own), but if you had chevron rollers on you're old washing machine, you probably wouldn't' get as much wringing as smooth rollers - but.....

Something needs to pull the hay through too - to some extent, how great or small that is maybe debated. I believe (please correct me on this) the first New Holland haybine had a smooth rubber surfaced roller and a smooth steel roller? That gave way to the rubber chevron rollers later. But I've read somewhere that those smooth rollers did a great job of conditioning.

I read, the deep lug type rollers, be it steel or rubber - break the stem. Perhaps they don't do much for the leaf as there is nothing to break. If it's crushing what you want - these rollers might not totally deliver the mail - unless hay is thicker or over ripe grass hay - which truth be told, around my neck of the woods, dominates. Very stemmy hay - and a nice tan/brown color too...  Green hay is generally green and white after a month... 

I should think crushing rollers would go the furthest in conditioning hay in that - every inch of the grass, stems and leaves are crushed either by the rolls themselves or the pile-up of hay going through the rollers - hay on hay crushing. Ought to be a lot of stem crushing, stem breaking and crushed/brused leaves all the way around - which IMHO would contribute to even and better overall drying. Sounds like a good dry down deal to me.

Looking at the videos of the Circle C rollers, they look like full contact (read crushing) rollers, they just inter-mesh deep like the New Holland rollers - but have a sine wave inter-meshing full contact profiles. With the Circle C rollers, you got some more grip to pull the hay in to the rollers via the larger lobes on them - but it looks like they mate with each other's surface - just like the old smooth rollers on New Holland's first haybine. I've also read a ton of posts saying the JD trilobe rollers are terrific at conditioning hay. Again, shallow lobes, tight inter-meshing and much crushing vs breaking of hay passing through them. Finally, the old ticor rollers - which I have read many great things about, they very much resemble the JD trilobe rollers. Both IMHO are more crushing than anything else.

So if crushing vs breaking vs stripping the waxy surface (impellers) gives a more overall complete dry down and Circle C rollers get you there, probably worth the investment if you're trying to dry the hay out quickly and retain color.

Maybe I should take a second look at the MF1359, 1363 and 1366 mower conditioners with the rubber on rubber shallow crushing rollers (http://www.masseyferguson.us/content/dam/Brands/Massey%20Ferguson/US/Literature/massey-ferguson-1300-series-disc-mower-conditioner-brochure.pdf/_jcr_content/renditions/original). That might be a good way to go and if/when the rolls let go - retrofit with Circle C rollers. I think to get to the trilobe rollers in the JD, you have to move to the larger 900 series mower conditioners.

Just a few thoughts.

BACK TO LURKING!!!!!!!!!!!



Bill


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I would also check the price and option with the B&D rollers - they have the same look as the circle C, just deeper lugs. We had steel rolls in our haybine, and were really disappointed, hence why we got these. And dairy guys will tell you that cows eat the much better, cause it's softer when the stems are crushed. B&D has no airbag option, and I question how much more that really helps. We have the stock tensioner set just about as tight as it will go - no trouble yet.

Rodney


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Rodney R said:


> I would also check the price and option with the B&D rollers - they have the same look as the circle C, just deeper lugs. We had steel rolls in our haybine, and were really disappointed, hence why we got these. And dairy guys will tell you that cows eat the much better, cause it's softer when the stems are crushed. B&D has no airbag option, and I question how much more that really helps. We have the stock tensioner set just about as tight as it will go - no trouble yet.
> 
> Rodney


 What didn't you like about the steel rolls? Before looking into the Circle C's I thought if I would buy a new discbine instead of a 499 that I would get steel rolls because the Hesston guys I talked to at farm shows said they would dry faster than rubber rolls.

I will look into the B&D rolls as well.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

Cline,

Imagine just taking a stem of hay and putting it between 2 finger nails and pinching it - that was the job the steel rolls did. They had us sold when they said the hay was going to dry faster with the steel rolls - too bad it really dried slower. I told a NH rep at a farm show (who was real proud of those rolls), that they should melt them all down because they were scrap anyway. He told me that it was about 50% of folks either loved them or hated them. A few years ago when we changed them out, the B&D came in at only a few hundred $$$ more - they had some sort of special going on, and that made them real competitive.

Rodney


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

I had a Vermeer steel rolls and saw absolutely no help in dry down. I am not a fan of them at all.


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