Energy consumption in cultivating and ploughing with traction improvement system and consideration of the rear furrow wheel-load in ploughing

Effects of six primary tillage implements on energy inputs and residue cover in Central Italy

“…The availability of data on energy requirement, fuel consumption and force of traction of tillage implements is the main factor to determine the power class of the required tractor (Moitzi et al, 2013;Pochi et al, 2013) and to estimate the effects of different implements in relation to the quality of the tillage in specific soil types, in terms of depth of tillage, soil cloddiness and crop residue or biomass cover (Raper et al, 2000;Chen et al, 2004;Sahu and Raheman, 2006).…”

“…Conventional tillage systems may produce undesirable effects, such as worsening of soil structure due to compaction, loss of nutrients in deeper layers and of organic matter in upper depths (Lal, 2004), increasing soil erosion caused by wind or by surface runoff (De Laune and Sij, 2012), excessive energy requirements and costs (Perfect et al, 1997). These effects can be reduced, especially in compact clay soil, by replacing conventional implements with soil conservation tillage equipment, to reduce the number of passes, the working depth, the fuel consumption and the energy input (Raper and Bergtold, 2007;Fanigliulo and Pochi, 2011), by using one pass implements with wider working width and equipped with suitable geometry working tools (Godwin, 2007).The availability of data on energy requirement, fuel consumption and force of traction of tillage implements is the main factor to determine the power class of the required tractor (Moitzi et al, 2013;Pochi et al, 2013) and to estimate the effects of different implements in relation to the quality of the tillage in specific soil types, in terms of depth of tillage, soil cloddiness and crop residue or biomass cover (Raper et al, 2000;Chen et al, 2004;Sahu and Raheman, 2006).Studies on conventional and reduced tillage in scientific literature have provided a large amount of information on methods, labour and energy in different soil conditions (Al Suhaibani and Al-Janobi, 1997;Arvidsson et al, 2004;Wandkar et al, 2013), but only a few gave a comprehensive picture of the energy request and of the quality of tillage for the most common methods performing primary tillage in compact soils. McLaughlin et al (2008) studied energy inputs and draft for eight different primary tillage implements in a clay loam soil, but no data on tillage quality parameters were provided.…”

Power performance of farm tractor in field operations

“…The operational engine parameters are engine speed, transmission gear ratios and engine torque [1,14]. The experience and reaction time of the tractor operator also play an important role in maintaining these parameters in optimal range [4,18,23,28,29] and optimal engine utilization [4,12,21].…”

Differences in tractor performance parameters between single-wheel 4WD and dual-wheel 2WD driving systems

“…Deviations from the operational speed deteriorate quality of work and increase power consumption. Example, when recommended speed (8-10 km/h) is exceeded for soil tillage, the dynamic effect on the soil increases, which adds to power consumption (Barbosa and Magalhaes, 2015;Vantsevich, 2014;Moitzi et al, 2013;Hashemi et al, 2012). In order to effectively use the engine power and not to deviate from the operational speed, the engine has to be loaded with higher traction force, i.e., working width has to be increased.…”