Evaluation of tillage efficiency and power requirements for a deep-placement fertilizer applicator with reverse rotational rotary

Abstract

The new implement “Deep-Placement Fertilizer Applicator” was developed. This implement has mainly two features. At first, it can conduct deep-placement fertilization which is one of environmentally friendly farming method. Second, this implement can save on labor costs because it simultaneously performs tillage, fertilization, seeding and suppression. In addition, an additional mature is not required because the effect of fertilizers is kept over a longer period by the deep-placement fertilization of the slow release fertilizer. In this study the modified model was developed with reverse rotational rotary to reduce power requirements. Experiments were conducted in Andosol soil to investigate the performance of the modified model quantitatively. The performance was compared with that of prototype model with conventional rotary under similar conditions. In this study, actual power requirements and soil pulverization performance were evaluated. The result clearly shows that the modified model was better than the prototype in terms of power requirements reduction and soil pulverization performance. The modified model consumed 16.7, 19.5 and 18.1% less power requirements than the prototype at 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 km/h forward speed respectively. There were significant differences between the prototype and the modified model (p < 0.01) and clear difference was indicated in all conditions. Moreover, the modified model had a superior soil pulverization performance compared with the prototype. The average particle size of clod of the modified model was smaller than that of the prototype.