Results of the exploitation study of self-propelled maize combine harvesters in conditions of the Toplica County

Abstract

Operation quality of an ear-picking device for mercantile maize is defined by the grain losses, quality of harvested mass and by straw chopper cutting height. Contemporary solutions for such machines should enable quality maize harvesting in various conditions, where losses and damage of grains would not exceed tolerable values. This paper gives the results of an exploitation study on operation quality of two ear-picking device types of self-propelled combine harvesters for mercantile maize in agroecological conditions of the Toplica County. The investigation aimed to establish operation quality, operation productivity and fuel consumption. During the first phase, operating conditions were established, whilst in the second phase operating effects were established, as affected by the defined parameters. The first type of ear-picking device for mercantile maize showed better operation quality, comparing than the second one, under similarly defined parameters. Mass harvested by the first device contained over 95.24% undamaged and 8.25 % unshucked ears, with shelling degree of 1.52%. Grain losses varied from 0.52-1.10%. In the second type, there were around 93.17% of whole ears and 9.10% of unshucked ones, with grain losses of 0.73-1.65%. Shelling degree was 2.93%. Driving velocity significantly affected the increase in straw chopper cutting height, so it was 19.2-23.6 cm for the first device type, and 19.7-32.3 cm for the second one. Operation productivity was between 0.96 and 1.23 ha h-1.

Keywords

• combine
• maize
• quality of work
• losses
• productivity