FACTORS AFFECTING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF MECHANICAL HARVESTING MACHINE FOR PLANTED WHEAT CROP ON RAISED BEDS

The aim of this study is using the mechanical harvesting to suit the harvesting of the planted wheat crop on raised beds with respect to harvesting grains losses, cutting height, energy, and cost for exploiting the advantages of the raised beds cultivation. Three different machines were used for harvesting wheat crop planted on raised beds namely: Claas, Yanmar combines as well as the front mounted reciprocating mower which harvested wheat in rows that followed by threshing machine were tested and compared to each other. The practical experiments of this study were carried out to evaluate the performance of the harvesting machines under four forward speeds of 1.2,1.8, 2.5 and 3.7 km/h, four grain moisture content of 12.5, 15.2, 17.3 and 19.7% taking into consideration the total grain losses, actual field capacity, consumed energy and criterion cost. This study recommended to use the Claas combine for harvesting the planted wheat crop on raised beds at forward speed of 1.8 km/h and grain moisture content of 19.7 % for achieving lowest criterion cost of 374.48 LE/fed and actual field capacity of 1.18 fed/h with 4.05 % of total grain losses, and consumed energy of 31.33 kW.h/fed. The highest criterion cost with Claas, Yanmar combine and front mower were 621.25,739.48 and 959.69 LE/fed at forward speed of 3.7 km/h and grain moisture content of 12.5%.