Assessing the feasibility of using tillers and mini-tractors for mechanizing work in forest nurseries

Abstract

At the moment, a significant part of the equipment operated in permanent forest nurseries is worn out by 70-80%. At the same time, the existing equipment has excessive productivity, which in conditions of small forest nurseries leads to excessive operating costs. The area of sowing departments and fallow fields in modern nurse-ries rarely exceeds 3 hectares, which makes it possible to accept small farms as the closest analogy in terms of the volume of agrotechnical work. Based on the cluster analysis of the nomenclature of existing machines and tools of various types, the options for re-equipping forest nurseries with small-sized mobile energy means (SMEM) and small-scale mechanization means (SMM) in modern geopolitical conditions were evaluated. Firstly, the information on ploughshares, disc harrows, spreaders of solid fertilizers, sprayers, precision seeders and cul-tivators for aggregation with tillers and mini-tractors available for purchase was analyzed. Secondly, the neces-sary level of power-to-weight ratio of the heavy vehicle has been determined to perform the entire list of mecha-nized work on growing planting material in a forest nursery. Thirdly, the economic feasibility of using tillers and mini-tractors to perform work in forest nurseries by calculating "hourly operating costs" was evaluated. The re-duction of the range of SMEM and SMM models offered on the market of the Russian Federation is not a limiting factor. There are enough machines and tools of Russian, Belarusian and Chinese production to ensure mecha-nized work in a forest nursery. The most effective are SMEM with an engine power of 30 kW and a load capacity of 700 kg rear suspension. SMEM is economically feasible to use with an annual volume of work equivalent to 60 hectares of conventional arable land, or less. With large volumes, the use of more productive tools with a trac-tor of traction class 1.4 is economically justified.