A new hoe share design for weed control: measurements of soil movement and draught forces during operation

ABSTRACT

This research introduces a new share design (L-share) that reduces the undesired random soil movement, providing a more controlled disturbance of the upper soil layer. Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate draught forces and soil movements when operating the new share. Materials and Methods: Experiments were conducted in a laboratory set-up using a soil bin with a fine loamy soil texture. The soil was compacted to a bulk density of 1500 kg m⁻³, with a penetration index of 486 kPa and a mean water content of 10%. The cultivation depths were 30, 50 and 70 mm and the operation speeds were 0.84, 1.67 and 2.31 m s⁻¹. Cubes were used to measure soil movement by recording the displacement from their initial positions. The soil surface and furrow profile were measured by using a 2D laser range scanner. Results: The results showed that increasing operation speed and cultivation depths generally increased draught forces and soil movement. Changing the cultivation depth from 30 to 50 mm resulted in a 63% greater longitudinal force (F_x), and 71% greater F_x when increasing the cultivation depth from 50 to 70 mm. Conclusion: The study showed that the new L-share mounted on a modified spring tine only causes minor soil movement and thereby minimising the undesirable soil movement.

KEYWORDS:

• Soil disturbance
• soil movement
• draught force
• sweep
• share
• soil bin

Acknowledgements

Special thanks go to the staff at the Faculty of Production Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, for their support and commitment in performing the experiments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Liubava Znova is an R&D engineer at Agro Intelligence ApS in Aarhus, Denmark. Qualification - research engineer of agricultural production technical support. Speciality - processes, machinery and equipment of the agro industrial enterprises at the engineering and technological department, Poltava State Agrarian Academy, 1/3 Skovorody str., Poltava, 36003 Ukraine. She has co-authored 2 scientific papers on the fields of farm machinery. Presently, she is studying the farm machinery and interaction between the working tools with soil.

Bo Melander is an Associate professor at the Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Forsøgsvej 1, DK-4200 Slagelse. He has authored and co-authored 41 scientific papers and book chapters in the field of weed biology and non-chemical weed control. Currently, he is studying the use of cultural, mechanical and thermal weed control methods for agricultural and horticultural crops.

Aleksander Lisowski is a Full Professor at the Department Agricultural and Forest Engineering, Faculty of Production Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, Nowoursynowska 166, 02-787 Warsaw. He has authored or co-authored over 150 scientific papers and 27 monographs, textbooks or chapters in these publications on the fields of soil and plant technique and technology; machine design; conversion of biomass into solid fuels and gaseous. Presently, he is working on biomass compaction and development of anaerobic digestion technology. He has supervised eight doctoral theses; 12 research projects and 74 subjects of research and development or expertise as a manager. He is an expert on the evaluation of research proposals and investment projects and editor-in-chief of the scientific journal of Annals of Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW Agriculture (Agricultural and Forest Engineering).

Jacek Klonowski is an Associate Professor at the Department Agricultural and Forest Engineering, Faculty of Production Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, Nowoursynowska 166, 02-787 Warsaw. He has authored or co-authored over 60 scientific papers and 12 monographs, textbooks or chapters in these publications on the fields of soil and plant technique and technology, working resistance and power of agricultural machinery, indirect monitoring methods of plant material flow rate in the forage harvesters. Presently, he is working on the influence of soil humidity level and geometrical penetrometer cone dimensions on readings in soil compaction measurements.

Jarosław Chlebowski is an Associate Professor at the Department Agricultural and Forest Engineering, Faculty of Production Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, Nowoursynowska 166, 02-787 Warsaw. He has authored or co-authored over 40 scientific papers on the fields of soil and plant technique and technology; energy crop harvesting; safe use of products; amaranth threshing; and mechanization of animal production. Presently, he is working on the mechanical cut weeding.

Gareth T. C. Edwards gained his Ph.D. from Aarhus University in 2015, focusing on field readiness for agricultural operations. He has co-authored over 5 scientific papers on soils’ workability for tillage operations and operational optimisation. Presently, he is working for Agro Intelligence, a precision agriculture OEM, and is Chief Scientist.

Søren Kirkegaard Nielsen is a research and development engineer employed at Agro Intelligence ApS, enrolling in an industrial Ph.D. at Aarhus University of Denmark, department of agroecology. He has a Master degree in Biosystems Engineering from Aarhus University and a bachelor degree from Aarhus School of Marine and Technical Engineering in Denmark. He has published different papers i.e. 'Sensor and control for consistent seed drill coulter depth', 'Seed drill instrumentation for spatial coulter depth positioning' in Comput. Electron. Agric. Comput. and 'Plough section control for optimised uniformity in primary tillage' in Advances in Animal Biosciences. He has also presented his studies at different conferences i.e. 'ISTRO' International Soil Tillage Research Organisation in China and 'ECPA' European Conference on precision agriculture in UK.

Ole Green has a background with an agricultural engineering and an agronomy degree, with a PhD from the Dept. of Engineering at Aarhus University. His research expertise covers: The interaction within tillage, soil compaction and soil fertility from a multidisciplinary perspective. Precision farming technologies, specifically within soil tillage optimization and crop establishment. And Farm management systems for tillage and crop growth optimization, route planning and operations optimization. In addition, Ole is a Honorary Professor in technology and intelligent solutions for sustainable soil management at the Department of Agro Ecology, Aarhus University.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Danish Agrifish Agency of the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food, through the Green Development and Demonstration Programme (Grønt Udviklings- og Demonstrationsprogram – GUDP) and the project NewCut, journal number 34009-14-0789.