Full Length Research Paper

The evaluation of alternative stalk chopping methods in sunflower farming

E. Gonulol¹*, I. S. Dalmis², B. Kayisoglu¹, Y. Bayhan¹ and H. Kocabiyik³

¹University of Namik Kemal, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Farm Machinery, 59030 Tekirdag-Turkey.

²University of Namik Kemal, Vocational College of Technical Science, Dept of Machinery, 59030 Tekirdag-Turkey.

³University of Onsekiz Mart, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Farm Machinery, 59030 17100 Canakkale- Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: egonulol@nku.edu.tr.  Tel: +90536 601 37 39. Fax: +90282 293 13 78.

Accepted 15 October, 2009

   Abstract

In this study, the alternative chopping methods were compared in sunflower farming. After harvesting sunflower stalk was chopped with three different methods by using three different stalk chopper machines. Two different rotary type machines (RT1 and RT2) and heavy duty disc harrow (CON) were applied in the experiment. Heavy duty disc harrow used as conventional method. Particle size distribution after chopping, management parameters of the machines and energy requirements were determined in the experiment. Maximum frequency with 37.09% for RT1 and 24.62% for CON were found in the stalk size group of 102 - 173 mm. Whereas, maximum frequency with 31.08% was obtained in the size group of 30 - 101 mm for RT2. The highest fuel consumption (19.28 L.ha^-1) was obtained in CON method and the highest field efficiency with 0.886 ha.h^-1 was found in RT2. RT1 has 756.1 MJ.ha^-1 total energy requirements. RT2 has 868.3 MJ.ha^-1 and CON has 944.3 MJ.ha^-1. The differences among methods in frequency of particle sizes, values of fuel consumption and total energy requirements were found to be statistically significant.

Key words: Sunflower, stalk, shedding, chopper, energy.