Fuel Consumption Evaluation of Some Commonly Used Farm Tractors for Ploughing Operations on the Sandy-loam soil of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Farm Tractors acquired in Oyo State-Nigeria are primarily utilized for ploughing operations which represents the most costly single item in the budget of an arable farmer. Tractor fuel consumption constitutes a significant parameter that affects ploughing operations performances. Ploughing operations, using ASABE standard D 497.5 were carried out using Massey Ferguson ( MF 435, 100 hp), Fiat ( F130D, 100 hp) and Steyr ( CVT170, 100 hp) tractors that were purchased in 2009. Field experiments were conducted at 5.5, 6.5 and 7.5 km/h ploughing speeds for ploughing depths of 20, 25 and 30 cm. Mean fuel consumption for Fiat, MF and Steyr models were 23.35, 23.58 and 24.55 l/ha while average of 16.78, 22.02 and 32.67 l/ha of diesel were used to plough 20, 25 and 30 cm depths, respectively. Fuel consumption increased by 31% when ploughing depth increased from 20 to 25 cm and 48% when increased from 25 to 30 cm. Mean fuel consumption at 5.5, 6.5 and 7.5 km/h ploughing speeds were 20.0, 24.25 and 27.23 l/ha, respectively. Fuel consumption varies significantly with ploughing depth and speed (p<0.05, 0.87≤r 2 ≤0.99). Fuel consumption values increases with ploughing dept and speed significantly, the depth of crop roots should determine the appropriate ploughing depth in order to minimize expenses on fuel.

Operational and yield performances and fuel-related CO2 emissions under different tillage-sowing practices in a rainfed crop rotation

“…Deeper tillage with mouldboard plow as shown in Table 1 was another significant reason of rising fuel consumption. This could be supported with the findings of Fathollahzadeh et al (2010), Namdari et al (2011) and Adewoyin (2013). They determined that fuel consumption increased due to increased plowing depth.…”

“…Although a mouldboard plow used in conventional tillage practices can, under some conditions, provide protection from weed infestation (Calado et al 2013), conventional tillage with a plow is one of the processes with high fuel consumption (Moitzi et al 2014). Deeper tillage with a mouldboard plow is a significant reason for rising fuel consumption (Adewoyin 2013;Fathollahzadeh et al 2010;Namdari et al 2011). Many studies about the fuel consumption of tillage practices showed that conventional tillage with a mouldboard plow resulted in higher fuel consumption compared with conservation (reduced and no-tillage) practices (Akbarnia and Farhani 2014;Alamouti and Mohammadi 2015;Filipović et al 2004;Sarauskis et al 2012;Yalcin et al 2005).…”

Solar Energy's Role in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Agriculture

“…Limited power and range: Solar-powered machinery may have limited power and range compared to traditional fossil fuel-powered equipment, particularly for heavy-duty tasks such as tillage or harvesting [84]. This can limit their usefulness for some farming operations or require the use of hybrid systems that combine solar power with other energy sources [85].…”

Development of plough-able RFID sensor network systems for precision agriculture

“…When the interrogator of the proposed system moves with a farm machinery, the speed of the farm machinery is one of primary factors which affects the system performance in harvesting energy. Farming tractors typically run at the speeds ranging from 5.5 to 7.5 Kilometres Per Hour (kph) [101]. With the speeds in that range, the on-vehicle interrogator can easily travel more than 1.5 metres per second.…”

“…In practice, a tractor typically runs at a speed of 5.5 Kilometres Per Hour (kph) for ploughing operations [101]. According to Equation 11.7, the calculated powering time that is provided at the typical tractor speed is 0.8 s. The calculation is based on one of the realistic scenarios where the reader antenna height is 0.5 m, the depth of the sensor node is 0.4 m, and the beamwidth of the reader antenna, θ, is 70 degrees [138].…”