Effect of combine working speed and seed moisture content on berseem clover losses in khouzestan

ABSTRACT: Berseem clover is shown a good potential for forage production and needs significant care at harvest time to reduce seed losses. Recognition of effective factors and using suitable mechanism of crop harvesting can reduce seed losses to an acceptable amount. To investigate berseem clover seed losses due to seed moisture content and the speed of combine harvester at seed harvest time, research was carried out in khouzestan province in 2011. This study included three seed moisture contents (10, 15 and 20%) and three combine working speeds (1, 2 and 2.5 km.h-1) based on split plot by using a randomized block design with 3 replications. Results were shown that the interaction between speed and seed moisture content on platform and thresher was significant (p? 0.01). Reduction of seed moisture content from 20% to 10%, seed losses on platform increased from 4.61% to 8.11%. Interaction between combine working speed and seed moisture content showed 4.53% (65.98 kg.ha-1) losses where combine working speed was 1 km.h-1 with 20% seed moisture content and the highest was 11.66% (169.2 kg.ha-1) using 2.5 km.h-1 speed and 10% moisture content. Finally combine working speed of 2 km.h-1 and 15% seed moisture content were suitable for harvesting berseem clover seed.