Performance of pneumatic loader for loose straw handling on a farm yard

Abstract

Indian agricultural bears heavy labour and cost in the straw handling process after harvest. During peak harvesting season, unavailability of labourers and need of timeliness of operation, burning of straw in field have been a conventional practice. Mechanization in this field has been low but loading/ unloading of loose straw is a tedious work. These operations can be performed efficiently using a tractor operated pneumatic loader and with less effort. Present study was aimed at optimizing the working of pneumatic loader at varying suction, delivery length and power take-off (PTO) speeds for wheat, soybean and pigeon pea straws. The optimized suction and delivery lengths for all the three straws were obtained as 2 and 10 m, respectively. The PTO speeds of 302, 366, and 373 rpm were identified as optimum for wheat, soybean, and pigeon pea straws, respectively. The operational cost of the machine with tractor was calculated as Rs. 228 for loading one tonne straw which resulted in heavy savings.