Effect of Powered Disc Coulters and Residue Holding Wheel on Cutting Performance of Rice Residues under No-Tillage System in Soil Bin

Management of rice residue is still a challenging issue and factors such as poor feed quality of rice residue, limited and timely unavailability of suitable residue handling machines, and narrow window period available prior to seeding of the next crop act as driving forces for residue burning by the farmers. In-situ management of rice crop residue can prevent ill effects of residue burning on the natural resources. In this study, three types of power-driven disc coulter i.e. serrated, plain, and toothed, with three different arrangements of residue holding device i.e. no holding wheel, single holding wheel, and twin holding wheels, with speed ratios (ratio of rotational speed of coulter and forward speed) of 5.2, 6.94, and 8.67, were evaluated in the soil bin of Soil Dynamic Research Laboratory of ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, India. Horizontal forces, vertical forces, torque, and residue cutting performance were measured with residue density ranging from 3000 to 5000 kg ha-1. The experiments (243 including replications) were conducted according to Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The mean horizontal forces, vertical forces, torques, and cutting percentage increased significantly (P< 0.05) with the increase in the number of residue holding wheel. Increasing the residue load had no effect on the cutting percentage of the residue. The results showed that the residue cutting performance of the plain coulter with twin holding wheels was nearly 100% at any combination of the selected variables. Introduction of residue holding wheels to the coulters helped in sowing successive crop (like wheat, maize, etc.) in the combine harvested rice field with heavy residue.

Effect of Powered Disc Coulters and Residue Holding Wheel on Cutting Performance of Rice Residues under No-Tillage System in Soil Bin Keywords:

Conservation tillage , Residue clogged , Residue cutting.