N.A khanpour lehi - university of agriculture and natural resources iran
m.a asoodar
m ghaseminejad
h aghagolzade

Rice is one of the most important grains in providing diet security. Regarding the rise in population, reduction of losses at harvest is crucial. Especially, considering the forward speed and grain moisture content which are two major factors in increasing crop losses have and been influenced by the wastages in different sections. Therefore, to study the effect of forward speed and grain moisture content on rice losses, a project was performed to use three forward speeds included 2, 3 and 4 km/h and also 3 grain moisture content 20, 25 and 30% in the technology promoting and developing center of Haraz, in Iran 2012. Measurements were arranged by using a split-split plot fitted into randomized complete block design. Results showed reduction of moisture content from 30, 25 and 20% at the speed 4 km/h, head losses were 1.01, 0.79 and 1.38%, respectively. Because of reducing the forward speed from 4 km/h to 2 km/h, the loss amount of half-grinded stems was reduced from 0.19 to 0.08. The average of broken grains at the speed of 2, 3 and 4 km/h, was shown to be 7.66, 6.1 and 5.6 percent, respectively. Head losses in the combine harvester were 0.14% using the speed of 2 km/h and 30% of gmc which represented a lower amount compared to the others. The amount of broken and cracked grain had lowest losses where 3 km/h speed and 25% moisture content with average losses of 5.6%.

Cracked grains, Harvesting, Head losses, Paddy rice, Rice losses