FIELD EVALUATION OF BULLOCK DRAWN COTTON PLANTER

VINAYKUMAR V. SARAF¹, SHAILESH H. THAKARE², KANCHAN V. GEDAM³*, DHANANJAY M. KADAM^4
1Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, 444 104, Maharashtra, India
²Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, 444 104, Maharashtra, India
³Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, 444 104, Maharashtra, India
⁴Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Adhartal, Jabalpur, 482004, India
* Corresponding Author : kanchi.gedam@gmail.com

Received : 04-10-2016     Accepted : 15-11-2016     Published : 30-11-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 58       Pages : 3171 - 3176
Int J Agr Sci 8.58 (2016):3171-3176

Keywords : Spacing adjustment, Gear ratio, Hopper, Seed plate, Ground wheel
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : The authors are sincerely thankful to College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidhyapeeth Akola for providing the facility to carry out this work
Author Contribution : ll authors are substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition and interpretation of data to the work on the requirement of the farmers and its modifications

Bullock drawn cotton planter was evaluated in field for cotton variety AKA-5 with objectives to test the bullock drawn cotton planter with three point linkage to make it tractor-cum bullock drawn planter. The field performance test conducted over 1 ha area and revealed that the average horse power required was 0.478 hp and average speed was 2.7 km/hr. The average effective field capacity of bullock drawn cotton planter was observed 0.486 ha/hr at the field efficiency of 89.46%. The fabrication cost of bullock drawn cotton planter was found to be Rs. 11850. In the field, it is drudgerous to plant cotton manually as it requires minimum 5 to 6 labours. To avoid labour cost, the modified bullock drawn cotton planter was tested along with three point linkage. Total cost of operations by bullock drawn cotton planter was Rs. 55.395 per hour with minimum required 2.5 labours. Total cost of operations by BD cotton planter per hectare was Rs. 127.63 per hour.