Experimental investigation of harrow with spring teeth for cultivation of sugar beets

Abstract

Abstract. In accordance with contemporary technologies, the fight against contamination of sugar beet crops by multiple applications of herbicides, which are environmentally hazardous, is carried out. In the biological cultivation of beets, the use of chemical preparations is not allowed. The purpose of this study was experimental determination of a possibility for efficient thinning sugar beet plantations with the help of a new spring-toothed harrow, which has mechanical selectivity with respect to the shoots of weeds. The revealed agrotechnical differences between the shoots of the sugar beet and the common weeds made it possible to substantiate the design peculiarities of the new harrow with spring teeth. The new harrow with the chain-spring operating tools in an optimal operating mode in the range of the soil moisture (W = 14-20 %) ensures destruction of the weed shoots -from 60 to 75.1 % with a removal of the sugar beet shoots from 3 to 5 % (mostly poorly developed or diseased plants). The conducted field tests of the harrow with the chain-spring teeth showed its efficiency and advantages over the other existing harrow designs in the care for sugar beet plantations without application of herbicides. The research results of a harrow with chain-type working tools showed that, in contrast to the existing serial specimens, it removes up to 5 times less sugar beet shoots, and destroys by 11-15 % more weeds. This harrow can find application on the fields for ecologically clean management of soil cultivation on the farms and other private households.Keywords: sugar beet, harrow, spring tooth, shoots, weeds. IntroductionIn accordance with the modern technologies used in agriculture, multiple applications of herbicides are practiced to combat the weediness of sowings, introduction of which into the soil is considered environmentally undesirable or dangerous. In the case of biological (ecological) land farming, the use of chemical preparations is not allowed and the problem of the weed control becomes especially urgent. In the recent years biological agriculture (organic farming) in the developed countries has a steady tendency to increase the areas of plantations [1]. Seeking more sophisticated mechanical methods for the weed control remains also topical at the present time when cultivating other agricultural crops [2][3][4]. The use of manual labour in such operations is now also practically eliminated due to high costs, etc.Harrowing of the sowings is an old and sufficiently simple common agrotechnical way of the weed control [3], including in the beet cultivation. Nevertheless, this method, based on the existing tools (tooth harrows, rotary hoes, etc.) is not efficient enough due to the fact that an insufficient number of the weed shoots is destroyed using it and, at the same time, a large proportion of the shoots of the cultivated plants is damaged.A lot of researchers have worked to solve the problem how to create a reliable and efficient working tools and tools for the weed control on the cultivated crop plant...

Investigation of deformation of the spring tooth of agricultural implements from the action of the force applied to it

“…It is necessary to reduce the length of the spring by one twist. Then its length will be s 2 = 0.61 m. Next, substitute the expression of the moment of inertia in the second equation ( 10) I = πr 4 /4 and solve it with respect to r:…”

“…The article presents a scheme of combined three-layer cultivator blade formation, which ensures an increase in resource indicators due to the application of powdered abrasion-resistant materials by arc surfacing. V. Bulgakov et al (2018) proposed the design of a new spring-toothed harrow that has mechanical selectivity for weed germination. The study by H. Sheng et al (2022) is devoted to the construction of mathematical models of the stability of the functioning of a mechanical rotor system.…”

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“…The article presents a scheme of combined three-layer cultivator blade formation, which ensures an increase in resource indicators due to the application of powdered abrasion-resistant materials by arc surfacing. V. Bulgakov et al (2018) proposed the design of a new spring-toothed harrow that has mechanical selectivity for weed germination. The study by H. Sheng et al (2022) is devoted to the construction of mathematical models of the stability of the functioning of a mechanical rotor system.…”

Substantiation of Process Variables and Modes of Heavy Spring-Tooth Harrow

“…The important function of soil mulching in spring and autumn seasons as well as efficient distribution of stubbles in autumn after harvesting are performed the most efficiently by the heavy wide-level tooth harrows, their tools are comprised of pivotally mounted conical spring with one or two loose ends (hereinafter referred to as spring-tooth tool); it also should be mentioned that these tools are characterized by obvious advantages in comparison with their analogs rigidly fixed on frame. The researchers [1][2][3][4][5][6] have no common opinion concerning the influence of variables of spring-tooth tool (position angle, cultivation depth, and travelling speed of machine-tractor aggregate (MTA)) on quality performances of harrow operation. This work is aimed at provision of recommendation to use harrows with spring-tooth tools on the basis of the proposed optimization criterion.…”