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Buckwheat plant height is an important indicator for producers. Due to the decline in agricultural labor, the automatic and real-time acquisition of crop growth information will become a prominent issue for farms in the future. To address this problem, we focused on stereo vision and a regression convolutional neural network (CNN) in order to estimate buckwheat plant height. MobileNet V3 Small, NasNet Mobile, RegNet Y002, EfficientNet V2 B0, MobileNet V3 Large, NasNet Large, RegNet Y008, and EfficientNet V2 L were modified into regression CNNs. Through a five-fold cross-validation of the modeling data, the modified RegNet Y008 was selected as the optimal estimation model. Based on the depth and contour information of buckwheat depth image, the mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), mean square error (MSE), and mean relative error (MRE) when estimating plant height were 0.56 cm, 0.73 cm, 0.54 cm, and 1.7%, respectively. The coefficient of determination (R2) value between the estimated and measured results was 0.9994. Combined with the LabVIEW software development platform, this method can estimate buckwheat accurately, quickly, and automatically. This work contributes to the automatic management of farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock dung, discarded crop straws, and residual plastic film are the primary agricultural non-point sources of pollution. For livestock dung and discarded crop straw, the general treatment focuses on compost, animal fodder, industrial raw material, and new energy. The development of degradable mulch film is the main way to solve pollution from residual plastic film. However, an effective way to solve the above three types of pollution simultaneously and use them for ecological circular agriculture has been less studied. In this study, using cow dung and flax straw wastes as raw materials, we prepared natural, fibre-based paper mulch using the rapid-Kothen method and analysed the film-forming mechanism. Based on the Van Soest method, the cow dung and flax straw waste contain abundant cellulose fibres: 36.75% and 54.69%, respectively. The tensile strength and tear strength of fibre paper mulch are 1.87 kN/m and 19.91 N/mm, respectively. To enhance the adaptability of the fibre paper mulch in humid environments, the surface of the mulch was treated with alkyl ketene dimer (AKD). The AKD-coated fibre paper mulch displays hydrophobic properties, indicated by a contact angle of 128° ± 2°. It has a wet tensile strength of 0.64 kN/m and a wet tear strength of 8.23 N/mm. Additionally, it exhibits a dry tensile strength and a tear strength of 2.13 kN/m and 16.43 N/mm, respectively. Notably, the dry tensile strength is increased by 16.31%. In this way, the livestock dung and discarded crop straw can be reused, reducing dung pollution and straw burning in livestock farms, and the final products can alleviate the residual film pollution simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agronomic technology of whole plastic-film mulching on double ridges has been widely promoted in the arid region of northwest China, which has caused serious residual film pollution in the field. Mechanized residual plastic-film collecting is the main way, but this way of residual plastic-film collecting is more complicated. To prove the effect of typical film-lifting parts on residual plastic-film collecting performance by a numerical simulation method, further evaluate and select the working parts suitable for residual plastic-film collecting and improve the collecting efficiency, virtual whole plastic-film mulching on double ridges needs to be established. In this study, the film-lifting parts and the double ridge with flexible, deformable, mulching, film interaction model was developed using the discrete element method (DEM). The interaction model was used to simulate the operation process of a typical third-order shovel, hug plate and elastic teeth film-lifting parts. Furthermore, the operation resistance, seed bed disturbance and collecting residual film form under different working conditions were analyzed. The simulation results show that: the disturbance of the ridge from strong to weak is the third-order shovel, elastic teeth and hug plate film-lifting parts; the crushing of the ridge soil from strong to weak is the elastic teeth, the hug plate and the third-order shovel film-lifting parts; the collecting film from strong to weak is the hug plate, elastic teeth and the third-order shovel film-lifting parts; the median value of the horizontal force fluctuation range of the ridge soil on the film-lifting parts is increased, and the increase trend is from large to small in the third-order shovel, elastic teeth and hug plate film-lifting parts (the third-order shovel is 5250 N, 6250 N and 7750 N; the hug plate is 3250 N, 3500 N and 4000 N; and the elastic teeth are 4150 N, 4550 N and 5450 N). The comparative analysis results show that the hug plate film-lifting parts are more suitable for the residual-film collecting of whole plastic-film mulching on double ridges. Field trials were carried out to verify the operational effectiveness of the hug plate film-lifting parts. The results show that the morphological changes of the recovered residual film and the simulated mulching film during the operation of the hug plate-type residual film machine, and the distribution of the surface properties of the ridge after the residual-film collecting are basically consistent with the simulation results, and the film pick-up rate of hug plate film-lifting parts reaches 95.20%, and the established discrete element interaction model is reliable. The research results can provide reference for the research and development of full film duopoly furrow-mechanized residual film-collecting agricultural equipment in the arid region of northwest China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]