Document Type : Articles
Authors
Department of Agriculture Machines and Equipment, College of Agriculture, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq.
Abstract
Afield experiments were carried out to study the effect of soil moisture and depth of plowing on the performance of the soil plowing machine to requirements draft force, soil disturbed, and Mean Weight Diameter (MWD). The machine was used with and without discs for three levels of soil moisture content (SMC) (9, 18, and 28%), and three plowing depths (40, 50, and 60cm). The experiments were applied using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) of a factorial experiment (3 x 3 x 2) with three replications. The results showed a variation in the requirements of the draft force when the SMC changes, the values of draft force were 33.3, 32.64, and 31.66kN for the SMC of 9, 28, and 18%, respectively. Adding discs had a significant effect on the draft force it increased by 1.11kN. The draft force increased when the plowing depth was increased, the depth of 60cm gave the highest value of 35.92kN. The SMC of 18% was recorded as the largest disturbed area at 0.42m2 and the least MWD by 31.59mm, followed by the SMC of 28% and then 9%, it was the least disturbed area at 0.38 and 0.35m2, and MWD by 40.25 and 38.65mm respectively. The depth of 60cm is recorded as the largest disturbed area of 0.51m2, and MWD 30.59mm. The adding discs decreased the MWD by 6.9 mm compared to without discs.
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