Fodder production in the country, Performance Of Forage Harvester-cum-chopper, Maize fodder crop, Effect of cutter speed on Harvesting, Effect of forward speed on Harvesting, Throughput capacity (T/H), Harvesting efficiency (%), Height of cut (cm), loss of moisture content (%), chopping size (cm) and specific fuel consumption (L/T)

1. Welcome

2. Credit seminar
on
Effect Of Crop Geometry, Cutter Speed And Forward Speed On Performance
Of Forage Harvester-cum-chopper
by
Samala Sai Mohan
CAES/14-033
Under the guidance of
Er. D. Anil Kumar
Asst. Professor
Dept. of farm machinery and power Engineering
Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University
College ofAgricultural Engineering, Kandi, Sangareddy-502285

3. Contents:
Introduction
Objective
Materials and methods
Results and discussions
Conclusion
References

4. Introduction:
Fodder production in the country has been substantially increased to provide with
good quality.
In Punjab state, the area under fodder crops is around 0.86 million hectare and
annual production is about 67.27 million tonnes(anonymous,2014).
Harvesting of fodder crops especially tall fodder is a serious problem because of
shortage of labour at the time of harvesting.
The manual cutting of fodder crops using scythes has a very low productivity and
involves human discomfort too.
Most of the changes are occurring with existing fodder machinery to handle
largest possible volume of the crop in minimum time.

5. Objective:
To determine the effect of crop
geometry, cutter speed and
forward speed on performance
characteristics of tractor operated
forage harvester-cum-chopper.

6. Materials and methods:
The tractor operated disc type forage harvestercum-chopper harvests, chops and
load the chopped fodder in the trailer attached behind the machine.
The chopping mechanism of the machine consists of a flywheel equipped with 12
knives and the crop is cut by the two serrated disc revolving in opposite direction.
 After cutting, the crop is held by vertical mounted pressure rollers. The blades
mounted on the flywheel further reduce the size and the crop is conveyed by flappers
mounted on the flywheel into the trailer.

7. Case Study
A tractor operated forage harvester cum chopper with following specifications
is operated in african tall variety of maize fodder crop.
PARAMETER OBSEVATIONS
Type of machine and power source, hp Tractor PTO operated, 45 hp or above
Number and type of cutting discs 2, serrated type
Spacing between row dividers, mm 260
Number of chopping knives 12
Type of throwing chute Adjustable
Overall dimensions (LxWxH), mm and Weight, kg 2700, 2000, 2800 (550kg)

8. The machine was evaluated in maize fodder crop grown in two crop
geometries, at two cutter speeds(95 & 105 rpm) and three forward speeds (1.70, 2.30
and 3.30 km/H). The effect of these parameters was observed on throughput capacity
(T/H), harvesting efficiency (%), height of cut (cm), loss of moisture content (%),
chopping size (cm) and specific fuel consumption (L/T).

9. Results and discussion:
African tall variety of maize was harvested 74 days after sowing. The plant
population and crop weight per meter row length, plant height, stem diameter and
moisture content at the time of harvesting were recorded in both single row and
paired row plots.
Crop parameters in single row and paired row
S.No PARAMETER SINGLE ROW PAIRED ROW
1 Average Plant population, number/m row length 5.30 9.40
2 Plant height, mm 1713 1576
3 Stem diameter, mm 19.4 18.6
4 Crop weight, kg/meter row length 1.53 1.81
5 Moisture content at the time of harvesting, % 72.8 72.1

10. Effect on throughput capacity: The throughput capacity increased significantly with
increase in speed.

11. Effect on harvesting efficiency: With increase in forward speed it was found that the
harvesting efficiency decreased at cutter speed of 95 and 105 rpm in both single row
and paired row crop.

12. Effect on loss of moisture content: Moisture content in the harvested and chopped
fodder crop is one of the important parameter of fodder quality. The loss of moisture
content increased significantly with increase in forward speed and cutter speed of the
machine due to high shear rate and impact.

13. Effect on specific fuel consumption:The specific fuel consumption was found
relatively less in paired row crop as throughput capacity was relatively more in paired
row crop as compared to single row crop.

14. Effect on height of cut: Height of cut increased with increase in forward speed in
both single row and paired row crop.
Effect on chopping size: Variation in chopping size was found non significant with
increase in forward speed and cutter speed of the machine.

15. S.No
Field Operation parameters Machine performance parameters
Crop
Geometry
Cutter
Speed
(rpm)
Forward
Speed
(km/h)
Throughput
Capacity
(t/h)
Loss of Moisture
content (%)
Specific fuel
consumption
(l/t)
1 paired row 105 3.3 4.90 5.95 1.11
2 Paired row 95 3.3 4.78 5.59 0.99
3 single row 105 3.3 4.52 5.46 1.18
4 Paired row 105 1.7 2.80 4.85 1.97
• Among all the four options, the options I,II & III having the forward speed of
3.30 km/h werefound better than the option IV due to relatively higher throughput
capacity of 4.90, 4.78, 4.52t/h as compared to 2.80 t/h.
Selection of field operation parameters of the machine:

16. Conclusion:
Keeping in view all the performance characteristics of the machine in terms of the
selected dependent parameters, the most suitable combination of field operation and
independent parameters were found to be operating the machine at 3.3 km/h with
cutter speed of 95 rpm in paired row crop.

17. References:
Rajesh Verma, Vishal Bector, Gursahib Singh, Effect Of Crop Geometry,
Cutter Speed And Forward Speed On Performance Of Forage Harvester-
cum-chopper, AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING TODAY Indian Society of
Agricultural Engineers Vol. 39(4) October-December, 2015
Anonymous. 2014. Package of Practice of Kharif Crops of Punjab. Pp.110.
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India.
Bucker R J. 1967. Forage plot Harvester. Agron J 59: 203-204.
Garg I K; Manes G S; Dixit Anoop. 2004. Feasibility evaluation of flail type
forage harvester cum chopper. FIM report. Department of F.P.M, PAU,
Ludhiana. Pp 72-80.

18. Thank u