Evaluation of wheat stubble management practices in terms of the fuel consumption and field capacity

Abstract

Five wheat stubble management practices i.e. chopping the stubble by the chopper mounted on combine during harvest and transmitting the straw to trailer (SCDF), chopping the stubble by the chopper mounted on combine during harvest and spreading the straw to field surface (SCDS), chopping the stubble on field surface after harvest by chopper mounted on combine and transmitting the straw to trailer (SCAF), leaving the stubble on field surface (SLS) and removing the stubble left on field surface by baling (SSB) and the cutting height of combine header (10 and 20 cm) were evaluated in terms of fuel consumption and field capacity. The result of the studies showed that the cutting height of header was increased from 10 to 20 cm, the field capacity increased from 1.195 to 1.365 ha/h and the fuel consumption decreased from 54.472 to 38.859 l/ha. While the highest field capacity was determined in SLS (1.846 ha/h), SCAF and SSB treatments had the lowest field capacity (0.954 and 0.891 ha/h, respectively). Chopping the stubble by chopper mounted on combine and transmitting straw to trailer during harvest increased the fuel consumption of combine by 3.6 times.

Keywords

• combine harvester
• straw chopper
• cutting height
• field performance