INVESTIGATION INTO THE PERFORMANCE OF TRACTOR DRAWN POTATO DIGGERS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52151/Abstract
A comparative study was conducted to evaluate the performance of three types of tractors drawn potato diggers, viz oscillatory-sieve potato digger windrower, elevator-convey or digger and two-row mechanical digger. The diggers were operated at different forward speeds of 0.29 to 1.2 m/s and their performance in terms of recovery, cut and bruise-damage and labour requirement for picking and collection of tubers were evaluated for comparison. The type of diggers and forward speeds had significant effect on their performance. The maximum potato recovery of 98.77% and 85.07% was obtained with oscillatory-sieve and elevator conveyor diggers, respectively at the minimum forward speed of 0.29 m/s where as it was 69.64% with mechanical digger at 1.2 m/s speed. The cut damage of tubers increased with the forward speed and found minimum (0.41%) with oscillatory-sieve digger. The bruise damage, however, decreased with the speed in case of oscillatory-sieve and elevator digger but increased with mechanical digger. The labour requirement for picking and collection of tubers was found minimum (1 03 man-h/ha) with oscillatory-sieve digger and maximum (220 man-h/ha) with mechanical digger.
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References
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