Paraplough and Mouldboard Plow Performance Evaluation for Seedbed Preparation and Supporting Conservation Tillage

Abstract

The final yield of agricultural products depends on the effective factors during the growing season of plants, especially the size of soil aggregates and proper size distribution of aggregates. Therefore, it is very important to select appropriate tillage implement and to provide a suitable seedbed in terms of aggregate size with the least energy consumption. It is a new idea to use paraplough and winged-paraplough as tools for seedbed preparation. To measure and determine the factors affecting the mean weight diameter (MWD) of aggregates and percentage of crop residues on the soil surface, a series of field trials were performed in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with five replications. The trials were conducted at three forward speeds of 2, 5 and 7 km·h−1 and three operating depths of 0–10; 0–20; 0–30 cm using the mouldboard plough and the paraplough with different wing configurations (without wings, with forward wings, with backward wings). The main impacts of implemented type, forward speed and operating depth and their mutual binary effects were significant at P <1% for both the MWD of aggregates and percentage of remaining residue. The highest MWD of aggregates was related to mouldboard plough (5.59 mm) and the lowest value was related to paraplough with backward wings (2.9 mm). It was found that the winged paraplough created a good pulverization in the soil and sustained a high percentage of crop residues on the soil surface. This issue can be very useful and important in the conservation tillage and the conservation of soil resources, especially in the water deficient areas where the soil is prone to erosion.

Variable Depth Tillage: Importance, Applicability, and Impact—An Overview

“…Different soils have different ECa, with sand having low conductivity, silt having medium conductivity, and clay having high conductivity [43]. Abbaspour-Gilandeh et al [19] found that ECa increases with increasing clay content in the soil and obtained a strong linear relationship between soil ECa and soil texture and tillage draft requirement. Knowing the interaction between ECa and soil compaction, this approach may be promising for the application of a soil compaction map-based VDT system [25].…”

“…In three different tillage depths of 25, 35, and 45 cm under uniform depth and VDT methods, it was found that VDT reduced fuel consumption by 35%, 35%, and 23%, respectively; and field productivity increased by about 21% using VDT compared to constant depth tillage [31]. Abbaspour-Gilandeh et al [19] presented in their study the effect of VDT on fuel and energy reduction compared to traditional uniform tillage depth depending on soil type, soil moisture, and travel speed. They found that, in sandy loam soil, VDT reduced energy and fuel consumption by 21% and 8%; and in sandy soil by 26.1% and 8.5% respectively.…”

“…They note that for all soil types, draft force increases with increasing driving speed, but tillage depth has a greater influence than speed. After assessing the influence of soil moisture on fuel consumption, it was found that fuel consumption is negatively correlated with soil moisture [19].…”

“…In addition, there is a lack of work to determine the influence of tractor speed and soil parameters such as texture, moisture, and electrical conductivity on energy requirements in relation to site-specific tillage depth. This can be attributed to the fact that long, expensive, time-consuming experimental studies requiring additional equipment and knowledge lead farmers to prefer conventional technologies rather than VDT [19]. Where VDT has been used in the field, however, the depth settings have mostly been done manually.…”