M A Hoque
Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division
M S Hossain
Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division
Tractor performance, Seeding, Zero till drill, Wheat, Maize
Godagari and Poba upazilla, Rajshahi; and Kadamshahar (site 1), Kadamshahar (site 2), Dangirhat and Fulbari
Farm Mechanization
Farm machineries, Tillage-Cum-Seedling, Wheat, Maize
Five zero till drills were imported from India by SRFRSI project of CIMMYT. One of which was send to OFRD, Rajshahi. With this machine, field performance test was done at Godagari and Poba upazilla of Rajshahi district. Variety of maize and wheat were NK40 and BARI Gom 30, respectively. The planting and harvesting date of maize at Alimganj, Godagari were 25 November 2018 and 08 April, 2019 respectively. The sowing date of wheat at Kadamshahar (site 1), Kadamshahar (site 2), Dangirhat and Fulbari were 22-23 November 2018, 03-05 December 2018, 28-29 November 2018, 05-06 December 2018, respectively. The harvesting date of wheat at Kadamshahar (site 1), Kadamshahar (site 2), Dangirhat and Fulbari were 26-27 March 2019, 02 April 2019, 30 March 2019, 05 April 2019, respectively. The zero till drill was evaluated with wheat and maize. All agronomic adjustments such as seed rate control, depth of seeding, line to line distance adjustment, multiple crops seeding are incorporated in the tractor driven zero till drill. The zero tiller consist of different functional components, seed box, mainframe, seed metering devices, furrow opener, seed delivery tube, seed covering roller, power transmission chain and sprocket etc. Description of the machine: A tractor drawn zero seed drill consists of a steel frame, a rotary shaft with attached blower. The furrow openers are of shoe type. The zero seed drill is intended for used with tractors having 35-75 hp and working widths of 127 cm to 229 cm. The drive is via the universal joint assembly, safety clutch, multi-speed gear box and heavy duty chain drive to the rotor. The machine was supported with depth control skids or front steel wheels. The zero seed drill also consists of a seed box for placement of seeds at proper depth. All the parts are connected to the frame whereas the furrow openers are suspended below its back. The seed box is made of galvanized iron or sheet metal. Inclined plate metering device was used to drop the desired amount of seed in the uniform distribution pattern. The machine consists of following parts: 1) Seed metering device, 2) Furrow opener and 3) Covering device. Zero pressure pneumatic press wheels are used extensively. Tires with narrow center ribs press soil down firmly around the seed. Performance evaluation: Field capacity, field efficiency and fuel consumption were taken as the dependent variable. The effective field capacity, theoretical field capacity and field efficiency were calculated by recording the time consumed for actual work and the time spent for miscellaneous activities such as turning adjustment under field operating conditions etc. Theoretical field capacity is the rate of coverage of the implements based on 100 percent of the rated speed and covering 100 per cent of its rated width: Tfc = ws/10.................(1). The effective field capacity is calculated by recording the actual area covered by the implement, based on its total time consumed and its total time consumed and its width: Efc= A /(Tp+T1)...............(2). It is the ratio of effective field capacity and theoretical field capacity expressed in percent: Ef= Efc/Tfc............... (3). Where, Efc = Effective field capacity, ha/h; Tfc= theoretical field capacity, ha/h; Ef = field efficiencies, %; A = total area covered, ha; Tp= productive time, h; T1 = non-productive time, h; W = effective working width, m; and S = effective speed of operation, km/h. Speed of operation: To calculate the speed of operation two poles 20 m apart were placed approximately in the middle of the test run. The speed was calculated from the time required for the machine to travel the distance of 20 m.
Annual Research Report 2018-2019, BARI, Gazipur, Bangladesh
Report/Proceedings