International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The paper presents the research into the specific aspects of hitching agricultural machines and implements to wide span tractors (vehicles). According to the results of the performed investigations, the redistribution of the normal reaction forces on the tractor’s front and rear wheels depends to a significant extent not only on the inclination of the hitch links of the wide span tractor (vehicle), but also on such design parameters as the distance from the linkage to the centre of resistance and the carrier wheel of the agricultural machine or implement. In order to exclude in practical terms completely the effect of the machines’ running gear compacting the soil in the yielding (agronomic) zones of the field, it is recommended to implement on the wide span tractors (vehicles) the controlling devices that allow adjusting the normal vertical load on the agricultural machine or implement’s carrying wheels. Such controlling devices can operate on the principle of the known weight transfer traction boosters used in conventional tractors.

In the paper, the current situation in the production of crop growing by-products in Ukraine is examined. The potential output of crop growing by-products in various regions of Ukraine, part of which could be allocated for energy production, is determined. The fuel properties of the main types of biomass are presented. The state-of-the-art approaches to the use of straw and plant residues in agriculture are analysed. The possible ways of utilising straw and plant residues in crop growing for maintaining and regenerating the fertility of soils, in livestock husbandry as bedding and a supplement to coarse fodders and in heat power industry as an energy source for the production of thermal power are established. The state-of-the-art technologies and machinery for the rational use of straw and plant residues are described. The need for additional research into what plant residues and what quantities of them can be reasonably used for the fertilisation of soils, taking into account the saturation of the crop rotation systems with cereal crops, the limitation of the phytopathogenic load on grain varieties, the development of weeds, the management of the soil’s nitrogen status under different soil and climate conditions.