Development and Evaluation of Tractor Operated Rotary Weeder

摘要

A tractor operated rotary weeder was designed, developed and evaluated for its field performance in redgram crop. The weeder was designed using computer aided design (CAD) software and prototype was fabricated. The operational parameters selected forthe study were, three forward speeds (2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 km ha1), two rotary speeds (210 and 240 rpm) and three types of blades (L-type, C-type and J-type). The field performance of weeder was found to be better at 2.5 km ha'1 with rotary speed of 210 rpmfor L-type blade compared to other types. The maximum weeding efficiency of 92.5% with a field capacity of 0.42 ha ha"1 and fuel consumption of 5.2 lha1 was recorded with minimum plant damage (3.15%). The cost of weeding with tractor operated rotary weeder in redgram crop was found to be Rs 1469 ha', which was 41.25% less as compared to manual weeding (Rs 2500 ha~(-1)).