Tillage Operational Analysis Based on Soil Moisture Content, Machine Speed, and Disc Space of Compact Disc Harrow

Abstract

Purpose: During tillage operations, the selection of a working machine (tool) depends on the soil conditions as well as the type of tillage operation to be performed. The goal of this research was to ascertain the effects of varying working machine parameters of a compact disc harrow on tillage operations under various soil moisture content (SMC) conditions. Methods: The working machine parameters were the disc spacing and machine speed. The tillage parameters under investigation were the soil inversion ratio (SIR), tillage cutting depth (TCD), and soil clod breakage ratio (SCB). To determine the SIR, the areas of the white regions before and after tillage were obtained. The ratio of the difference of the areas of the white regions before and after tillage to the area of the white regions before tillage was considered as the SIR. The SCB was obtained as the ratio of the weight of soil clods after sieving with a mesh size of <0.02 m to the total weight of the soil clods before sieving. The soil TCD was measured using a tape measure at random points after the tillage operation. The resulting data were statistically analyzed in a one-way analysis of variance. Results: The highest soil inversion was achieved when the machine speed was 0.2 m/s with the disc spaced at 0.2 m in the 16.5% SMC. At a 0.4-m/s machine speed and 0.3-m disc spacing the highest soil breakage was achieved in the 26.5% SMC. The highest TCD was achieved at a 0.2-m/s machine speed and 0.2-m disc spacing in the 16.5% SMC. Conclusions: It was concluded that varying the working machine parameters, such as the disc spacing and machine speed, could significantly affect the soil inversion and soil clod breakage; however, it had no significant impact on the TCD.