The Effect of Ground Speed, Reel Rotational Speed and Reel Height in Harvester Losses

Abstract: Every year large areas of agricultural fields in Iran are under cereal cultivation. Cereal in Iran is harvested mainly by combine harvesters. Although Grain product rate is high in Iran, the grain harvest loss leads to considerable loss of grain. Investigations on Grain loss in different combine units shows that  the largest losses occur in head of combine and is influenced by several reasons such as type of the combine, combine adjustments, harvest time and etc. This research was carried out to investigate the performance and grain losses on the combine harvester in East Azerbaijan province of Iran. A factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with nine replications was carried out. Three main treatments for this study were considered. Treatments consisted of ground speed (V) at three levels (1, 2 and 4 km/h), the reel rotation speed (W) at three levels (25, 32 and 40 round per minute) and the reel height (H) at three levels (87, 110 and 118 cm). The results showed that ear loss of three treatments, interaction of V × W and the triple interaction of V × W × H were significant (P≤ 0.01). Ground speed was the only significant factor effecting seed loss (P≤ 0.01). Data Mean showed that maximum loss occurred at the highest Ground speed and rotational speed of reel. The best treatment was 1 km h^-1 Ground speed, 25 rpm reel rotational speed and 87 cm reel height.