Crop-machinery management system for field operations and farm machinery selection

摘要

The main objective of this study is to develop a computer system for farm management and selection of required farm machinery to perform field operations in time for crops grown in rotations. Excel and Visual basic software were used to develop the program. The input data included 4 crops (sorghum, sesame, sunflower and cotton), 3 field operations (seedbed preparation, seeding, and weeding operations) and 3 farming systems (zero-tillage, conventional, and heavy machines farming systems). In addition, tractor and 6 implements (wide level disk, disk harrow, chisel plow, row crop planter, inter-row cultivator and sprayer) were also used. The system estimates the size and number of machine, power requirement and fuel consumption for the implements and operations. Verification showed that, the system has the ability to estimate the required parameters as soon as input data was entered. System validation indicated no significant differences between predicted results and actual data. The sensitivity analysis showed that, changing of input variables affects the output parameters and consequently selection is possible. The system was applied to estimate the required output variables in the mechanized rainfed agriculture in Gedarif, Sudan. It can be used for proper crop and machinery management as pre-season decision making with great confidence.