Technical parameters of modern domestic and imported cultivators for continuous tillage were considered. Findings can be used for the estimation of specific technical indicators of engineered soil cultivating tools.

The study presents the results of analysis of the characteristics of modern tractors and tillage tools. The data obtained make it possible to assess the energy, economic, technical and shunting indices of the relevant aggregates, and can be used as a starting point in calculating the rational composition of the ma-chine and tractor fleet of agrarian enterprises. It is established that the dependencies and masses of trac-tors and the power of their engines on traction can be described with high accuracy by linear equations. On average, the mass of tracked tractors is 11 %, and the engine power is 27 % smaller than that of the cor-responding wheeled tractors. However, with a higher traction coefficient and low pressure on the soil, caterpillar tractors are less maneuverable, universal and, most importantly, less ergonomic, which hampers their wide application. With rational aggregation, such characteristics of the work of soil-cultivating units as working speed, specific fuel consumption, the utilization factor of the shift time do not actually depend on the traction class of the tractor. With an increase in the traction class of the tractor, the specific metal consumption of the implements being mounted with it increases. The difference is especially noticeable in the case of combined guns and «craters», for which a hypothetical transition from a class 1.4 tractor to a class 8 tractor led to an increase in the estimated specific material consumption by 3,7 and 3,4 times, respectively. The increase in productivity with the increase in the tractor class in most cases occurs with a delay. This allows us to conclude that the only advantage of introducing wide-angle aggregates is the reduction of the required number of operators. For the rest of the parameters, the machine with a wide-cut implement has no advantage over a group of machines with tools of identical total width.

The chisel plows represent a diverse group of tillers, which includes widespread constructions with working organs of a paraplow type mounted on a frame according to the arrow-shaped diagram. This arrangement has several advantages, but it also leads to the decrease of soil crumbling degree, increase of energy intensity of its loosening, decrease of stubble field safety. The study suggests to mount the working organs of chisel plow on a tool frame in pairs both in transversal and longitudinal directions in order to improve the efficiency of subsurface tillage. A chisel plow-ripper with the proposed arrangement of working organs has been tested in the North Caucasus Machine-Testing Station and recommended for implementation. With the view of efficiency assessement, the test results of the improved ripper were compared with the average performance of classical share and chisel plows. Comparative analysis showed that transversal pair arrangement of working organs provides the increase of soil crumbling degree by 17-21%. Thereby an optimal air-and-water regime for soil is formed, its contact with the roots of weeds is broken, which consequently provokes the ravage of offset weeds. More efficient use of energy supplied from tractor and the longitudinal pair arrangement of posts of working organs allow to decrease the specific fuel consumption by 20-27% in comparison with the analogs, to reduce the number of open furrows, to increase the stubble field safety, to reduce the unevenness of field surface more than twice.

Expediency of deep subsurface tillage in the conditions of southern Russia is substantiated. Shortcomings of modern ploughs and subsoil cultivators are analyzed. Improvement of their construction, that allows to increase tillage efficiency is proposed. Results of comparative tests of different ploughs and subsoil cultivators are given.

Several improvements are proposed for pneumatic sowing device of precision seed drill, allowing to increase the quality of cultivated crops’ seeds dosing. Results of comparative experimental research of pneumatic sowing device of serial production and of the modernized one are given.