Improving stability of movement of machine section for soil preparation and seeding

The subject research is operation of a combined machine for soil preparation and seeding of sunflower and corn seeds. Technological process of machine operation with installed guides, passive rotating flat discs with flanges (which properly ensure movement of soil along the plough share to loosening-separating device), a sowing device, a seed tube, a furrow former, a rotor, a separating grid, a parallelogram mechanism, a spring, a share is described. Dynamic prerequisites for increasing uniformity of depth of groove formation and seed placement in depth in soil are considered. Values of length of links of parallelogram mechanism, initial angle of their installation and stiffness of spring, values of deviations of combined machine section from given depth of movement of plough share are determined. It is proved that with an increase in length of levers of parallelogram mechanism, maximum deviations of section increase. An increase in initial angle of inclination of levers of parallelogram mechanism causes an increase in maximum deflections. As spring stiffness increases, maximum deflections decrease. Relevance of study lies in ensuring stability of copying soil surface by working bodies of combined machine while depth of seeding remains unchanged along entire length of movement, which will make it possible to increase movement speed and unit width. Target group of consumers of information in the article - designers, specialists involved in development of tillage machines.

Obtaining Experimental Values of the Uniformity of Seed Distribution by Multivariate Regression Analysis

One of the key factors affecting agricultural productivity is the availability of technical means that include machine and tractor units of agricultural enterprises. The production volume of the plant growing industry depends on high yields that can be achieved by high-quality sowing, which implies the optimal seed placement and sowing depth. Thus, the modernization of existing seeding machines and the creation of new ones that ensure the optimal seed placement is an urgent task. This study aimed to develop a coulter for uniform seed distribution along the furrow length. The object of the study was uniform sowing patterns for grain crops based on the optimal parameters of the proposed working unit of the seeding machine obtained by multivariate regression analysis. A symmetric orthogonal compositional plan of the second order was chosen as a model. The criterion for optimization of the geometric parameters of the developed coulter was the uniformity of seed distribution along the furrow length. The following parameters of the proposed coulter were changed: the cut length of the outer side of the rectilinear profile of the lower edge of the rack varied within 20–80 mm (L), and the approach angle in the horizontal plane (α) and the roll angle in the vertical plane (β) varied within 3–28 deg. The study yielded the regression equation for constructing the response surfaces. The analysis of the response surfaces showed that the optimal parameters for uniform seed distribution along the furrow length can be achieved at the approach angle α=250, the roll angle β=150, and the cut length of the lower edge of the rack L=50 mm. Keywords: Coulter, sowing, grain, quality, distribution uniformity, multivariate experiment

Performance Evaluation of Tractor Operated Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Clove Planter

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an important foreign exchange earner for India. The farmers generally plant garlic by manual method, which is labour intensive and time consuming. A tractor-operated garlic clove planter was developed and evaluated for its performance in the field. The average wheel slip, draft and average depth of seed placement by the developed planter were 6.93 %, 289.83 kg, and 42.1 mm, respectively. The average seed spacing, miss index, multiple index, quality of feed index, seed rate and seed metering efficiency for GG-4 and GG-5 garlic varieties were 99.4 mm, 6.12 %, 7.91 %, 85.96 %, 377 kg.ha-1; and 96.35 % and 99.9 mm, 4.58 %, 6.07 %, 89.34 %, 443 kg.ha-1, and 96.75 %, respectively during field tests. The effective field capacity and field efficiency of the developed planter were 0.33 ha.h-1 and 80.33; 0.32 ha.h-1 and 79.02 %, respectively, for GG-4 and GG-5 garlic seeds. The cost of planting by the developed planter with operational cost of tractor was ` 553.63 per hour (` 1677.67 per ha), and was less as compared to available planting machineries for garlic.

Development and Evaluation of Solenoid-Actuated Check Valve for Electro-Mechanical Inclined Plate Metering System Under Laboratory Conditions

The seeds in the conventional seed metering mechanism are metered and transferred through seed tube to the furrow created by the furrow opener. In this type of delivery, non-uniformity occurs due to the uncontrolled seed falling through seed tube from the metering device to the furrow. In conventional precision planters, the seed rate is controlled, whereas placement of seeds in furrow cannot be controlled. To achieve control over seed placement in the furrow, the solenoid-actuated check valves have been developed and fixed to the electro mechanical inclined metering system. The check valve system was tested with an opto electronic measurement system in laboratory conditions. For CO 6 variety of maize seeds, the quality feed index, missing index, multiple index and precision indexes found out as 86.2 – 89.6 %, 8 – 11.8 %, 1.9 – 2.9 % and 14.6 to 16.5 %, respectively. Using solenoidactuated check valve, the precision index of the developed electro mechanic metering system (14.6 – 16.5 %) increased.

Light, temperature and sowing depth on germination of garden spurge

ABSTRACT: Knowledge on weed biology and ecology is fundamental to provide suitable control practices in weed management systems. The objective of this research was to understand the effect of light and temperature on germination of Chamaesyce hirta, as well as to evaluate the effect of depth of seed placement in the soil in the emergence of the plant. Two experiments were conducted. In the first one, in the laboratory, the seeds were placed to germinate in plastic boxes and kept in a B.O.D. germination chamber, under constant temperatures of 20, 25, 30 and 35 ºC, either in the dark or under continuous light. Daily germination assessments were performed. The percentage of germinated seeds in the 10-day period and the germination speed index (GSI) were calculated. In the second trial, carried out in greenhouse conditions, 100 seeds were planted, under six levels of seeding depth (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 cm) and three soil cover conditions: no straw, under black oats (Avena strigosa) straw and under corn (Zea mays) straw. Daily plant emergence was counted along 30 days and total emergence and GSI were calculated. Germination of C. hirta seeds occurs both in the presence and absence of light. For the highest temperature, both increased germination and GSI were reported in the presence of light. The highest levels of emergence were obtained with the absence of plant cover and under corn straw at 0 cm depth. The presence of black oat straw on the soil reduced the emergence of C. hirta.

RESEARCH OF TECHNOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF THE GRATED INSTALLATION

Annual harvesting of a large number of forest seeds allows for reforestation on the territory of the Russian Federation. Moreover, more than 70% falls on the seeds of coniferous trees. In order to increase their sowing quality and reduce losses, the seeds are dehumidified, cleaned, sorted by density and size, stratification, as well as other technological operations. The use of refined seeds during reforestation allows increasing the productivity of sowing units, improving the quality of seed placement, reducing the volume of seed bins, which leads to a decrease in the metal consumption of sewing machines as a whole. For experimental studies, special sieves were made: plastic with chamfered, plastic with standard holes and plastic with rounded edges. The dependences of the completeness of separation of the procode fraction ε were determined for various combinations of the angle of inclination α and the rotation frequency of the working body ω for various seed thicknesses. The angle of inclination of the working body α was changed from 4 ° to 12 °, in increments of 2 °, rotation frequency ω from 400 min--to 1200 min-¹, in increments of 200 min-¹. The size gap was set taking into account the dimensional characteristics of existing sieves with rectangular holes and was 0.2 mm. Studies were conducted on the seeds of common pine.

Awareness on Drudgery Reducing Farm Technologies for Gender Equity

Agriculture in India is moving away from animal driven to machine driven. Apart from tractors and power weeders which are used by farmers, there are farm tools and implements that can be used by farm women to reduce their drudgery with increased productivity. The present study made an attempt in introducing the set of 14 drudgery reducing farm tools and implements i.e. sapling transplanter, sickle/kurpi, long handle weeders, three types of harvest bags, ring cutter, finger guards, milking stand cum stool, head load manager, seed cum fertilizer bag, seed placement tube and fertilizer broad caster. A capacity building training programme was conducted to the farm women for exposure about the improved set of farm tools and implements. The implements were given to village secretary for use of this equipment by a group of 50 farm women and data were collected from them regarding the awareness about the technologies before and after the capacity building training programmes. Adoption levels were assessed after completion of a crop season. It was found that partial awareness was there about the improved equipment before training and cent per cent awareness was in the random selected group after the training programs. About 62 per cent of the sample has moderately adopted the given technologies. The study indicated for educating the farmers about the importance of drudgery reducing technologies, training them in using the farm implements and providing them to have an easy accessibility to enhance the adoption level. Custom hiring centres can be the solution to house the improved technologies suitable for farm women so that they can be used on rotation basis.

Plowshare for Growing Ecologically Safe Soybeans

The authors showed that strip sowing with the paw plowshare allows soybean plants to branch better, and branches with leaves of nearby rows do not close for a long time, mowing vegetation between the strips reduces the total number of weeds, the chemical load on the crops, and ensures environmental safety of the products.(Research purpose) To determine the seed distribution parameters by the paw plowshare according to the area of the sowing strip and the depth of seed placement, to establish the effect of the plowshare of different types on the weediness of crops and soybean yield after various preceding crops.(Materials and methods) The authors studied the equability of soybean seeds distribution with the paw plowshare on the surface of the grooved tub, adhesive tape, and in the soil according to the following indicators: spread width, number of seeds per unit area, and placement depth. They conducted a comparative field experiment; in different years according to meteorological conditions, on a typical meadow black earth soil, soybean was sown with seeders with plowshare of two designs after various preceding crops: steam, wheat and soy.(Results and discussion) It was determined that the paw plowshare the specified sowing row width of 0.18-0.20 meters at the channel soil at a depth of 0.05 meters. The deviation from the equability of the sown seeds distribution over the area was determined 0.93-1.56 percent. It was found that strip sowing with the paw plowshare and further mowing of weeds between the strips reduced the weediness of soybean crops after fallow land by 67.7 percent, after wheat by 66.5 percent and after soybean by 65.4 percent, increasing its yield compared to ordinary sowing with a disc plowshare.(Conclusions) The authors established a regular increase in soybean productivity when sowing with the paw plowshare: after naked fallow – by 0.59 tons per hectare, after wheat – by 0.51, after soy – by 0.21 tons. They suggested using seeders with paw plowshare 0.2 meters wide at a distance of 0.6 meters from each other for growing ecologically safe soybean seeds in the Amur region.

KINEMATIC ANALYSIS AND SUBSTANTIATION OF THE PARAMETERS OF A SPIRAL-SCREW WORKING UNIT OF A SOIL PROCESSING MACHINE

To improve the quality of pre-sowing soil tillage in the Republic of Tatarstan, a tillage implement has been developed, which, unlike other designs, contains a helical spiral and needle ellipsoid disks coaxially mounted on a horizontal shaft. Passive helix creates a compacted seed bed at the depth of seed placement; needle ellipsoidal disks are active and provide mulching of the surface soil layer. A preliminary analysis of the processes of interaction of the working unit with the soil is possible on the basis of the parametric equations of motion of individual points of the cutting edges of the helical spiral, as well as expressions for determining their speeds and accelerations. The design parameters selected during the calculation and design of the proposed rotary combined tool should ensure that the helical spiral enters the soil with sliding. Otherwise, the traction resistance of the unit increases. To justify the basic design parameters of a spiral-screw working unit, preliminary construction of theoretical dependences is also necessary. According to the calculation results, the points of the cutting edge of the helical spiral make a complex movement in space when the gun moves. The components of the speed and acceleration of these points are variable parameters, which contributes to the active crumbling of the soil and the destruction of its lumps. The optimal design parameters of the working unit of the gun: the diameter of the helical spiral is 0.470 m; the angle of inclination of the helical spiral (the angle of the helix) - 10 ° ... 25 °; the angle of inclination of the large side of the strip to the generatrix of the cylindrical surface that describes the helical spiral is 25 ° ... 30 °