Opportunities to reduce the chaff processing requirements of a harvester weed seed destructor
Date
2013
Authors
Berry, N.K.
Saunders, C.
Fielke, J.M.
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Conference paper
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2013 Society for Engineering in Agriculture Conference : innovative agricultural technologies for a sustainable future, 2013, pp.371-379
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2013 Society for Engineering in Agriculture (SEAg) Conference (22 Sep 2013 - 24 Sep 2013 : Mandurah, Western Australia)
Abstract
To combat herbicide resistance, chaff collection and processing at harvest have been used effectively to mechanically control weed seeds contained in the chaff. The power requirement to process the entire chaff fraction to kill weed seeds is significant. If a proportion of the chaff material could be removed from the weed seeds, the power requirement for weed seed destruction could be reduced. Differences in terminal velocity were determined for wheat chaff particles and the seeds of a problematic weed Annual Ryegrass (Lolium rigidum). A comparison of terminal velocity was used to determine the proportion of material that theoretically could be removed by aerodynamic means alone. Mechanical sieving was also assessed by using different sieves to process 0.5, 1 and 2 kg of chaff with 50 dyed Annual Ryegrass seeds added. Aerodynamically it was theoretically possible to remove at least 22% of chaff material while collecting 95% of Annual Ryegrass seeds. Using sieving alone, 90% of Annual Ryegrass seeds could be collected, while removing up to 30% of chaff. The reduced chaff processing requirement could increase the energy efficiency of the harvest time weed seed destruction.
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Copyright 2013 Engineers Australia