Substantiation of technology and development of a pick-up chopper for preparation of chopped hay

With the use of current technologies of preparation of pressed forage, the losses of valued leaf part of grass plants come up to 14%, which is equivalent to significant losses of total weight of harvested hay. From this perspective, the purpose of the research is to develop a resource-saving technology of preparation of high-quality chopped hay, and to design a pick-up chopper for its implementation. To substantiate the offered technology, the method of system analysis is applied; to develop the structural and technological scheme of universal pick-up chopper, the method of design of agricultural machinery is used. As a result of theoretical researches, the analytical expression is obtained for determination of total yield losses, that are equivalent to the losses of leaf part of forage. The expression is proposed as a new optimization criterion for substantiation of different technologies of forage preparation. To improve the quality of forage and to exclude operations leading to the losses of leaf part of grass plants, a technology of preparation of chopped hay is proposed. Hammer and knife working bodies of a pick-up chopper provide high-quality chopping of dry and wet forage. The machine is equipped with new pick-up mechanism without treadmill, rollers, cranks or bearings for reliable hay picking up. The results of experimental researches allow to determine the following optimal parameters of the machine: the air flow speed in deflector 15 m/s; the rotation speed of pick-up reel 60 rpm; the optimal productivity 8-9 t/h; the losses of chopped forage 1.83%. The performance tests of a pick-up chopper equipped with hammer mill and new pick-up mechanism showed that it provides the preparation of high-quality chopped hay with reduction of operating costs by 2 times as compared to the roll technology of forage preparation.

chopped hay, leaf part, pick-up chopper for forage, pick-up mechanism, losses of leaf part of grass plant