CNC, you're welcome to borrow my cultipacker when you get ready to play with one. We're not far from you and I might even deliver it for the opportunity to see your successes first hand. I am going to try to roll over our sunn hemp this year instead of mowing it down. Since the sunn hemp stores nitrogen in the leaves that act as fertilizer upon decay, it makes sense to attempt to get nice, even coverage. Trying to bushhog tall growth like that often leads to large clumps being discharged behind the bushhog. Then you're not getting the fertilizer benefit to the entire field.
I bet with the proper crop selection, you could eliminate the mowing altogether. Spray, sow, and cultipacker. I don't see why this wouldn't work.
The Rodale institute has been experimenting with just this. They have invented/created a "roller/crimper" which is kind of a like a huge cultipacker with chevron teeth all around it. What they found is that they needed a roller that could cut the crop and lay it flat at the same time. By just rolling over it with a large 55 gallon drum filed with water or just by rolling it with a regular cultipacker they found that the crop would not die and planting was not a success. No mowing, no spraying. Just rolling and crimping the crop. You need something to break the stems or cut the plant when rolling, thus their roller/crimper was invented.
