Mechanization in agriculture & Conserving of the resources
Vol. 66 (2020), Issue 2

Table of Contents

  • MECHANIZATION IN AGRICULTURE

    • Resource efficient and erosion preventive integrated high- and lowland aggregate

      pg(s) 46-47

      The article proposes a fundamentally new design of a resource-saving, anti-erosion unit that significantly improves the quality of soil tillage in cultivating agricultural crops, improves the productivity of the plow, significantly eliminates soil erosion and reduces the fuel consumption of the tractor by reducing the traction resistance.
      The construction of the unit and the principle of its operation are described in detail. It can be successfully used both in plain and in mountainous terrain.
      Characteristic similarity criteria and a criterion equation for studying the traction force of the proposed unit are obtained and their physical meaning is revealed

    • The analysis of power expenditure of a wide-cut seeder for the performance of the technological operation

      pg(s) 48-49

      During the operation of the tractor unit in field operations, not all the power developed by the tractor engine is effectively spent on useful work.
      To use the tractor power effectively, reduce or eliminate its useless losses, the article considers the tractor power balance, showing the distribution of effective power among the individual components for traction and driving their working details. According to theoretical studies, it was found that the traction resistance of a wide-seeder with clutch openers consists of two components; this is the resistance of the hopper to movement and the resistance of the filling part
      It was found that traction resistance will decrease as the hopper empties. The pulling resistance of the embedment is made up of several components, with the maximum permissible working speed of the unit, the maximum embedment depth and the highest seed sowing rate, the required power to perform the sowing process is obtained within 120 kW (163, 155 h.p), excluding the tractor power for raising or lowering the side sections of the sealing part. The total power consumption is distributed as follows: 90,8% to overcome the traction resistance of the wide seed drill, 9,1% for the fan hydraulic drive, and the remaining 0,1% for the electric meter.
      To reduce the amount of required power for the sowing process, it is necessary to work in the direction of reducing the seeder mass and improving the design parameters of working coulters.

    • Assessment of negative impact of agricultural mobile energy means and euro-5 standard

      pg(s) 50-54

      Environmental problems today are one of the most important and global indicators of human development. One of the consequences of the impact of agricultural machinery on natural resources is their pollution due to loss of fuel and lubricants and engine waste. The purpose of the research is to develop scientific and methodological bases for the selection of criteria for assessing the environmental safety of the diesel engine of an energy vehicle with the creation of an environmental safety management system. The scientific and methodological basis for assessing these factors is a systematic approach to solving environmental problems that arise during the operation of machine-tractor units and other agricultural energy resources. Estimation of the level of emissions of the main pollutants and toxic substances in exhaust gases can be defined by means of the regulatory characteristic of the engine depending on an operating mode of this engine. The optimal mode of operation of the engine YaMZ-236M2, from an environmental point of view, adopted 1450…1850 rpm. In this case, fuel consumption does not increase in this mode. It is possible to reduce the emissions of the most significant NOx exhaust element by limiting the engine speed to 90% of the nominal. CO and CH emissions at a given engine speed have not reached their maximum value.

    • Experimental study results of the grinding process in a hammer-type shredder with side separating sieves

      pg(s) 55-58

      The technical implementation of air-product flow control in the working chamber of a hammer mill for timely separation of conditioned particles from the main stream and their lateralization (removal to the side zones) for the purpose of evacuation from the working chamber is considered. The energy and quality indicators of the grinding process in a hammer mill with side separating sieves are determined. The obtained experimental dependences are necessary for the manufacture of hammer crushers for farms and the development of recommendations for the operation of hammer crushers with side separating sieves. Improving the conditions of the grain material separation process and timely unloading of the finished product from the grinding chamber makes it possible to achieve economic efficiency by reducing the content of the dust fraction in the finished product and reducing the specific energy costs of the grinding process.

    • Study of specialized wide-rail agriculture unit for rail farming

      pg(s) 59-62

      A promising direction for further sustainable development of agriculture not only in Ukraine but also in the world is the introduction of innovative technologies, which should include the track and bridge systems of agriculture. These systems provide the basis for the automation and robotization of most crop production processes, ensure efficient implementation of “precision” and “digital” farming and provide other significant benefits. Scientists have not sufficiently studied the issue in this regard, and there is currently no effective methodology for implementing the potential technical-operational and technological properties of specialized broad gauge means of agricultural production mechanization for the rutting system of agriculture. Therefore, from the point of view of solving the food problem in the world, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as developing resource-saving technologies based on the principles of the rutting system of agriculture, in accordance with the trends of scientific and technological progress in the field of mechanization – improving the level of functioning of technical means through integrated mechanization, electrification, automation and robotization – this direction of research is relevant. The aim of the research is to substantiate the main advantages and effectiveness of the use of a specialized vehicle for rutting agriculture by justifying its main parameters. As a result of these studies, it was found that the energy saturation level of specialized agricultural vehicles moving in the tracks of a permanent technological track should be 23.5 kW·t−1, in realizing the traction force at the level of 6.37 kN by 1t of their weight. Losses of the field area for the engineering zone when using agricultural equipment with a wheelbase width exceeding 6 m are 5-6%. The economic effect of the use of broad-wheeled agents in wheat cultivation technology is at least 150 € per hectare.

    • Increasing the level of providing service enterprises with spare parts and materials

      pg(s) 63-67

      The work of logistical support subsystems of the service enterprise is analyzed, which leads to downtime of cars in repair, which complicates the work of the production area and leads to the necessity of allocation of ever larger premises for the storage of cars waiting for spare parts. The normative planning method for forming the needs of service companies in spare parts was selected, based on the methods of recovery theory. The normative planning method for forming the needs of service companies in spare parts was selected, based on the methods of recovery theory. An exponential Weibull – Gnedenko distribution has been established to describe the demand for the average resources of spare parts and units for cars. It is suggested to manage the stocks of necessary parts by the method of dividing the spare parts into groups A, B, C. The need for spare parts can be calculated using a general characteristic (based on a sample characteristic). Modern dealership service companies have a unified system of spare parts orders, depending on volume and periodicity. The change in the number of consumed parts of the first group, which occur smoothly without sharp fluctuations, is investigated. For the second group of parts, three maximums of spare parts are allocated.

    • Correlation of light wavelengths on spectral cameras and vegetation indexes in barley crop scouting

      pg(s) 68-70

      This paper presents a case study of a barley field experiment that was periodically scouted using a drone spectral camera. The camera has 4 bands so barley was scouted using 4 wavelengths of light – Green, Red, Red Edge and Nir Infra Red (NIR). Based on these wavelengths it is possible to calculate different vegetation indexes known in science and practice. In this paper, 15 such indices were used. The research work concerned the observation of correlation between individual wavelengths and corresponding vegetation indexes. This paper seeks to emphasize the importance of particular wavelengths and spectral areas in crop scouting

  • CONSERVING OF THE RESOURCES

    • On the possibility of conducting fast and reliable soil tests

      pg(s) 71-76

      The current interest in soil awareness is largely due to the increased importance of growing crops in a changing climate. It is characterized by prolonged droughts, followed by short but intense rainfall, often accompanied by strong winds and low temperatures. In a number of situations and due to insufficient information about the condition of the soil and the applied technologies for its treatment, the latter is not able to absorb rainwater, surface water runoff is formed, which exports large amounts of fertile soil and nutrients. An innovative approach is proposed to perform fast and accurate soil tests using its electromagnetic conductivity. A number of physical, chemical and biological properties can be determined by this method.

    • Modelling Fe, Zn and Mn availability in soils of eastern Croatia

      pg(s) 77-80

      Iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn) are essential microelements with plant available fraction in soil, depending significantly on soil pH and soil organic matter (SOM), which is important for crop growth. The aim of this paper is to present the potential of mathematical models in order to predict the availability of microelements (Fe, Zn, Mn) in acidic and alkaline soils of eastern Croatia. The fundamental database for availability prediction contains results of 22,616 soil samples from eastern Croatia representing an area of 88,714.46 ha of arable land. The mandatory results include soil pH, SOM, available P and K, hydrolytic acidity, and carbonate content. Additional data sets, including supplementary results of total (extracted by aqua regia, AR) and available (extracted by ethylenediaminetetraacetate, EDTA) micronutrient fraction, were used for modelling of micronutrient availability and for final model validation. The modelling micronutrient available fraction was created in 3 steps: (1) regression models of total (AR) and available (EDTA) micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Mn) concentration based on analytical results of soil pH, SOM, AR and EDTA micronutrients fractions; (2) prediction of the available micronutrients fraction (EDTA) based on the soil pH and SOM; (3) model validation using new data set with analytical results of soil pH, SOM, AR and EDTA. The model predicts that moderate micronutrients availability could be expected on 48.45 % (42,972.25 out of 88,714.46 ha) of arable land on average for Fe, Zn and Mn. A high availability could be on 29,32 % (25.982 ha) of arable land on average, but a very significant difference was found among Fe (47,37 %), Mn (39,01 %) and Zn (1,57 %) arable land with high availability. The most important prediction is the one that claims insufficient availability of micronutrient could be expected on 19,579.87 ha in average, what is 22.26 % of arable land. But low Fe availability was predicted on only 2.79 % (2,479,3 ha), significantly more land (22.60 %, 20,035.40 ha) with low Mn availability and the highest percentage (41,4 %) of soil with insufficient Zn availability (36,764.91 out of 88,714.46 ha). The validation shows the highest model accuracy for Zn and the lowest for Fe availability prediction

    • Water productivity and the effect of watering on apples grown under conditions of optimal irrigation and water deficit

      pg(s) 81-85

      In order to determine the productivity and the effect of irrigation on apples grown under soil and meteorological conditions in the area of the village of Chelopechene – Sofia, research was conducted on drip irrigation of a plantation of the “Florina” variety, and different regimes were tested – from complete satisfaction of the daily needs of water to irrigate the culture with irrigation rates reduced by 20% and 40%. A non-irrigation variant has also been tested.
      The productivity of the irrigation rate at optimal irrigation varies by years from 16.3 to 28.0 kg.ha-1.mm-1, and at 40% reduction of the irrigation rate from 19.3 to 26.0 kg.ha-1. mm-1
      The highest values of productivity of the irrigation rate are reached at irrigation with a 40% reduction of the irrigation rate, in the dry 2004 high values were obtained and at the variant irrigated with 100% irrigation rate 28,0 kg.ha-1.mm-1
      The optimization of moisture in the active soil layer contributes to a significant increase and stabilization of yields, which for the test conditions are from 1266 to 2087 kg / dka. Additional yields ranged from 542 to 821 kg / dka, averaging over the study period.