Development of High-Speed Rotary Harrow for Puddling (Part 4)

Work Efficiency of the Developed Harrow and Influence of Puddling on the Accuracy of Rice Transplanting

Abstract

Prototypes of high-speed rotary harrows and conventional rotary harrows were employed to investigate the work efficiency and the accuracy of rice transplanting after puddling. The following results were obtained. (1) When the developed harrows worked at 24 to 30% higher forward speed than the conventional harrows, effective field capacity of the developed harrows was 21 to 22% larger and the fuel consumption of the developed harrows was 13 to 15% lower than those of the conventional harrows. (2) The number of exposed stubble after puddling, the rate of surfaced seedling and buried seedling after rice transplanting in sandy loam paddy field were almost equal to those by the conventional harrows in the test sections by the developed harrows operating at the same forward speed as the conventional harrows. (3) The accuracy of puddling and rice transplanting was almost the same as those by the conventional harrows in the test sections by the developed harrows operating at 20 to 30% higher forward speed and at one less pass than the conventional harrows.