Investigating the Effect of Field and Crop Conditions on Combine Performance in Wheat Harvesting

Using Combine is the common method to harvest wheat in Iran. Since harvesting operations as the most sensitive stage of production affected by combine harvester performance, therefore investigating the combine harvester performance has a special importance and it’s necessary to evaluate. In this study, the effect of field and crop conditions on combine harvester performance in wheat harvesting has been investigated. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted in a completely randomized experimental with an unbalanced 2 x 3 factorial designs and covariance analysis using a New Holland combine harvester (TC 5070 model 2014) in Shahid Beheshti’s agro industry company farms in the town of Dezful, in 2016. Independent factors included three planting patterns (uniform row planting and furrow planting) and three levels of grain moisture contents (6-8, 8-10, 10 12 %), and dependent factors involved field capacity, field efficiency and the losses by combine. Furthermore, yield, percent of lodging and farm length were defined as covariant. The results indicated the effect of planting pattern on combine field capacity, combine field efficiency and combine losses have been significant (p value ≤ 0.01). The combine field capacity in the farms with uniform row planting pattern was 7.26 ton ha−1, while in farms with furrow planting pattern was 6.73 ton ha−1. The combine field efficiency in the farms with uniform row planting pattern was 83.70%, while in farms with furrow planting pattern was 82.42%. The losses by combine in the farms with uniform row planting pattern was 24.2 ton ha−1, while in farms with furrow planting pattern was 23.7 ton ha−1.