FUEL REQUIREMENTS AND MACHINE CAPACITY FOR TILLAGE AND PLANTING OPERATIONS ON A CLAY LOAM SOIL IN ISFAHAN

There is little information on fuel consumption and machine capacity of tillage and planting operations in Iran. The performance parameters of a range of tillage and planting implements for conventional tillage, tine-implement (non-inversion) tillage, and till-planting systems in wheat experiments in Isfahan, Iran were determined. Fuel consumption, effective machine capacity, field efficiency, and forward speed for various primary and secondary tillage and planting operations were measured. The effective working depth and width, wheel slip, and volume of soil disturbed were also determined for primary tillage operations. The tillage operations were a) moldboard plowing, b)chisel plowing, c)plowing with a locally made implement named Khishchee, d) disking after plowing, e) rotary tilling after chiseling and, f) disking after disking. The planting operations were a) planting with a grain drill in the tilled soil, and b)till-planting with a cultivator combine drill in the untilled soil. Throughout the experiment a 53kW two-wheel-drive tractor was used except for the till-planting operation where a two-wheel-drive 51 kW tractor was used. The experiments were conducted on a clay loam soil. Results showed that plowing with Khishchee had the highest fuel requirement and the lowest machine capacity. Although fuel consumption was the same for both chisel and moldboard plowinf, the machine capacity of the chisel plowing was 44% higher than that of moldboard plowing. In comparing the performance of the rotary tiller and the disk harrow, the machine capacity of the rotary tiller was half but its fuel requirement was 63% more. In comparing the performance of the grain drill working in the tilled soil and the cultivator combine drill working in the untilled soil, the fuel consumption of the grain drill was about half, but its machine capacity was twofolds..