A study on the chopping and mixing of cotton stalks with soil

Abstract

This study examined the methods adopted in Turkey to remove cotton stalks remaining in the field after the cotton harvest and quantified the efficiency of different mechanized stalk choppers. In this study, the performance of three different types of cotton stalk choppers was assessed (chain-type, splined-type and vertical-blade rotating dredge). Field experiments were conducted with each type to determine the proportion of non-uprooted cotton stalks; mean “post-chopping height” of the stalks, measured from soil surface; and the frequency distribution of the piece length of the stalks scattered around the field or mixed with soil after chopping. In addition, the workforce requirement, using time and fuel consumption of each type of chopper was calculated. The lowest fuel consumption was recorded by the chain-type stalk chopper (5.0 l/da), while the highest fuel consumption was recorded by the vertical-blade rotating dredge (7.1 l/ha). The largest “mean post-chopping piece size” was achieved by the vertical-blade rotating dredge plus geared cylinder (28.36 cm), while the smallest size was recorded by the splinedtype stalk chopper (13.38 cm). The highest rate of stalks mixed with the soil after chopping was achieved by the splined-type stalk copper (92.5%).