A Comparison of Power Requirement and Specific Draft of Two Type of Combination Plows vs. a Conventional Plow

Conventional tillage operations by either moldboard or disk plow need to be either changed or improved. Two types of combination plows were recently developed to modify the conventional equipment as well as to increase the efficiency. The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of the two combination plows as compared to conventional plow on power requirement and on specific draft. The experiments were conducted in a loamy textured soil with moisture content of 16-18% in Karaj region. Treatments consisted of moldboard + chisel plow combination, and disk + chisel plow combination vs conventional moldboard plow. Data was statistically analyzed using RCBD in three replications. Draft resistance, furrow cross section area, specific draft and drawbar power were either measured or calculated and then analyzed. The results indicated that draft resistance increased by 16.8% with moldboard + chisel and decreased 8.9% with disk plow + chisel as compared to conventional moldboard plow. However specific draft decreased by 29.8% and 10.4% for the combined plows respectively as compared with the conventional plow, this being due to soil disturbed area. Drawbar power for disk plow + chisel was noted to be maximum (26.2 kW).