Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Mohammad Ali Rostami ¹
• Mohammad Reza Bakhtiari ²
• Mohammad Jafari ³
• Fardin Ranjbar ⁴
• Masoud Zabolestani ⁵
• Hooman Sharifnasab ⁶
• Mahmoud Safari ⁷
• Karim Gerami ⁸

¹ Associate Prof. of Agricultural Engineering Research Department, Fars Agricultural and Resource Research and Education Center, AREEO, Shiraz, Iran.

² Agricultural Engineering Research Department. Hamedan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center. Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO). Hamadan. Iran.

³ Assistant Professor of Research, Agricultural Engineering and Technical Research Department, Lorestan Province Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Promotion Organization, Khorramabad,

⁴ Dryland Agricultural Research Institute.

⁵ Agricultural Engineering Research Department,East Azarbaijan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center,(AREEO), Tabriz, Iran

⁶ Associate Professor, AERI

⁷ Scientific board member of Agriculture Engineering Research Institute

⁸ West Azarbaijan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center

Abstract

This research was carried out to determine the type and contribution of each of the human, technical and agricultural factors affecting the amount of grain loss in wheat harvesting with threshing combines; in this research the economic evaluation of replacing the conventional combine with a threshing combine was also evaluated. One hundred combine harvesters were visited, examined, measured, and sampled in farmers' fields by random sampling. In addition to the measurement of technical indicators including forward speed, farm capacity, and combine wheel index, information related to farm and product conditions, type, age and fuel consumption of combines, farm area, amount of straw harvested in farms and economic data including types, costs, and incomes were collected by face-to-face interviews with farmers and owners of combine harvesters and completing questionnaires. The farm capacity of the combine was estimated to be 0.38 hectares per hour on average, which is about one-third to half of the farm capacity of common types of combine harvesters in the country. The fuel consumption was 14.01 liters per hour or 37.1 liters per hectare. The average total combined and natural losses of wheat in the harvest stage was 5.05%, and the shares of natural and combined losses were 1.28% and 3.77%, respectively. To use thresher combines instead of conventional combines in the country, more number of combines (almost double) is needed due to less farm capacity. In general, the use of combine harvesters instead of conventional harvesters increased the net income of farmers and combine owners by 317,5220 and 244,8840 Rials per hectare, respectively.

Keywords

• Harvesting
• Loss
• Straw Crushing Combine
• Wheat