Measurement of stubble cultivator draught force under different soil conditions.

Knowledge of the energy demands of the machines for soil tillage is a useful factor for machinery design as well as farm management. It was decided to measure the draught force necessary for the operation of the stubble cultivator Ecoland 4000 from BEDNAR FMT Co. The measuring set was composed as follows: pull tractor John Deere 8220 pulled by a rod in which the load cell was placed, another tractor John Deere 8345R. A cultivator type Ecoland 4000 (4 m working width) was mounted on the second pulled tractor. Measurements were carried out on two different soil types (light sandy and loamy) at operational speeds 6, 8 and 10 km h -1 and at two different adjusted depths of loosening. The soil physical properties were characterized by cone index measurements which were measured with a penetrometer PN-10 with cone angle 30° and area 100 mm 2 . The results showed an about 30% increase in the draught force at work in clayey soil in comparison to sandy soil. Different quality of tillage was also observed on different soil types.