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The grinding operations of corn cobs using two different local manufactured hammer mills namely: Aamagro (mill A), and El-Gohary (mill E) were evaluated and compared to be used as an ingredient in feedstuffs for animal and poultry farms. The field experiments were carried out at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Kafrelsheikh Governorate, Egypt during the year of 2015. These experiments were deduced to evaluate and compare the performance of the investigated hammer mills under the effects of three feeding rate levels (0.2, 0.4 and 0.6ton/h), four rotor speed levels (1200, 1500, 1800 and 2100rpm), and two screen hole diameter levels (9 and 14mm) using corn cobs. The performances of both machines were evaluated in terms of: fineness degree (particle size distribution), machine productivity, power requirements, specific energy consumption, and machinery unit cost. The results revealed that, the optimum operating conditions for both A and E mills were obtained at rotor speed of 2100rpm, cobs feed rate of 0.2 ton/h and 9mm screen hole diameter. Whereas, under these conditions the maximum percentages of fine milled cobs (1.7-≤1.18mm) of were 63.71 and 53.16% for A and E mills, respectively. Also, mill productivity of 0.185 and 0.146ton/h, power requirements of 2.245 and 3.076kW and specific energy consumption of 12.134 and 21.065kW.h/ton were determined under the optimal operating conditions for A and E mills, respectively. Moreover, the estimated machinery unit cost for mill E was about 1.124 times that of mill A.

The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the performance of two different types of cotton pickers, namely the John Deere model 7260 and the Pamuk brand cotton harvesting machine model ptm2. Therefore, field experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of four mean forward speeds of 1.32 ,1.66, 1.87, and 2.15 km h-1 , three fiber moisture contents of 13.3, 10.8, and 8.7% d.b, and three inter-row spaces of 0.70, 0.76, and 0.85 m. on the picking losses, machine productivity, specific energy consumption and fiber physical properties. The results showed that the minimum values of the picking losses were 0.8 and 4.5 % for the John Deere and Pamuk cotton pickers respectively recorded at a forward speed of 1.32 km/h, a fiber moisture content of 10.8% d.b., and an inter-row spacing of 0.85 m. The maximum values of machine productivity of the John Deere and Pamuk cotton pickers were 2.1 and 0.995 Mg h-1 , respectively, at a forward speed of 2.15 km h-1 , a fiber moisture content of 10.8%, and an inter-row spacing of 0.76 m. The lowest values for the specific energy consumption were 23.07 and 30.69 kW h Mg-1 for the John Deere and Pamuk cotton pickers, respectively, at a forward speed of 2.15 km/h, a fiber moisture content of 8.7 % d.b., and an inter-row spacing of 0.85 m. Also, At a forward speed of 1.32 km/h, fiber moisture content of 13.3% and an inter-row spacing of 0.76 m. both cotton pickers achieved the maximum values of 2.5% span fiber length, 50 % span fiber length, fiber length uniformity ratio and reflectance and minimum values of seed cotton trash content and yellowness.

Anew prototype device for mechanical control water-hyacinth plants must be adapted using local materials. The attempt was to get rid of water-hyacinth plants from small canals and waterways through season 2013 at El-Shakeiloba village, Elberolos lake, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate. It was evaluated under different conditions included machine forward speed, gathering reel speed and mean of water level height on field capacity, productivity, gathering efficiency, chopping efficiency, power consumption and operation cost. The results showed that the new prototype device produced maximum of field capacity and productivity of 49.93 m²/min and 6.017 Mg/h recorded with forward speed of 0.5 m/s, gathering reel speed of 0.94 m/s and water level height more than 150 cm. Meanwhile, maximum value of gathering efficiency was 98.82% and minimum value of machine losses was 1.18 % recorded with forward speed of 0.26 m/s, gathering reel speed of 0.94 m/s and water level height more than 150 cm. Besides, maximum of chopping efficiency was 87.41% recorded with forward speed of 0.26 m/s, and gathering reel speed of 0.56 m/s . Whereas, minimum value of power consumption and operation cost were 10.285 kW and 24.55 L.E/h respectively, recorded with forward speed of 0.26 m/s, gathering reel speed of 0.56 m/s and water level height more than 150 cm.

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