Time Available for Spraying and Mechanized Sowing in the Northeast of the State of Mato Grosso Do Sul and South of Goiás

Abstract

The sizing of mechanized agricultural systems depends on the soil and climatic conditions, the crop and the work regime. The aim of this study was to determine the probabilities of time available during an agricultural year for mechanized spraying and sowing in the northeast region of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul and south of Goiás. The meteorological restrictions imposed as unfavorable hours were: ambient temperature above 32ºC, relative air humidity below 50%, wind velocity above 15 km h-1 and soil volumetric moisture above 39% (humidity equivalent to 90% of the available water capacity for the studied soil). The mathematical models were elaborated for eight years, based on the historical data of the automatic station of the National Institute of Meteorology installed in the region. It was possible to determine the time available for mechanized sowing and agricultural spraying operations. The available times for every ten days of the agricultural year for mechanized spraying and sowing in the study region were determined. The hourly water balance is used for the restrictive study of soil moisture in determining the time available for mechanized operations. A single selfpropelled sprayer (30 m bar) and a single seed drill (48 rows) are not sufficient to meet the operational rate in an area of 3,000 ha in the northeast of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul and south of Goiás.

Developing an algorithm to geographically estimate the available time for agricultural field spraying in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul

“…The rainy (beginning in spring) and summer seasons were selected to present the results considering that they coincided with the crop period in the agricultural fields of Mato Grosso do Sul. None of the weather variables i.e., temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed in October, November, or The operational field capacity was estimated based on the dimensional sprayer data and spray efficiency (Gava et al, 2018). Furthermore, the Operational Field Capacity (OFC) of the agricultural sprayer was calculated using an average field speed of 17 km h -1 (4.72 m s -1 ), an effective boom width of 27 m, and an average field efficiency of 60 %, resulting in an OFC of 27.50 ha h -1 as it occurred on the field.…”

“…In most of the study regions, the crop system by minimum tillage is the mainly practiced applied, and in some areas notillage practice. Thus, an amount of 2.5 t ha -1 of straw covering the soil (Gava et al, 2018) was considered for calculating the water balance, typical for the scenario of study. The script sequence was defined using the programming scheme presented in Figure 3.…”

“…The planning of the sprayer activities during the crop season is shown in Figure 4. The operational field capacity was estimated based on the dimensional sprayer data and spray efficiency (Gava et al, 2018). Furthermore, the Operational Field Capacity (OFC) of the agricultural sprayer was calculated using an average field speed of 17 km h -1 (4.72 m s -1 ), an effective boom width of 27 m, and an average field efficiency of 60 %, resulting in an OFC of 27.50 ha h -1 as it occurred on the field.…”

“…Depending on the crop, mechanization within the agricultural production process can account for 20%-40% of the total production costs (Kay et al, 2019;Mello et al, 2019). Furthermore, the variation in the climatic conditions and soil moisture during the cropping period directly interfere with the dimensioning process (Gava et al, 2018).…”

“…In comparison, when this same traffic of machines occurs when the soil is presenting moisture at 65% of the field capacity, there is no longer a significant difference in compaction using the same machinery (Deon et al, 2018). However, the literature does not present the ideal soil moisture for mechanized operations according to the different conditions of textures (Gava et al, 2018).…”