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The experiment was conducted to study the effect of the time shelling process by two levels of 30 and 40 seconds, and Sheller feeding rate with three levels of 4, 7, and 10 kg on the specific energy, specific capacity, unshelled grains, and broken kernels maize. The statistical analysis showed that increasing shelling time from 30 to 4 seconds led to a significant increase in specific capacity and broken kernels, moreover leading to a significant decrease in specific energy and unshelled grains. The increase in sheller feeding from 4 to 7 then to 10 kg, to increase specific capacity, unshelled grains, decrease in specific energy and broken kernels. The least specific energy was 0.154 kw.kW.kg-1 and the highest specific capacity was 6.66 kg/kw.h-1 with the time of shelling 40 second and feeding rate of 10 kg. Whereas that results shows there is no significant effect of the interaction between the time of shelling and sheller feeding rate in the unshelled grains and kernels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews ethnographic descriptions of Australia's First Nations people's grain threshing to inform future grain research and revival of practice in south-eastern Australia. The processing of grain requires many steps, and while harvesting, winnowing and grinding are comparatively well-documented, the threshing stage, which involves the removal of the husk and other nonedible parts of the seed head before the seed is winnowed and ground, remains poorly understood. In south-eastern Australia much of the threshing knowledge has been lost through the impacts of colonization; whereas communities in Central Australia have retained this knowledge in relation to their traditional grains. However, these species are not common in all areas. As different species require different threshing processes, only some of this knowledge can be directly applied in south-eastern Australia. Ethnographic descriptions have the potential to contribute additional First Nations knowledge to the revitalization of this practice. This article brings together ethnographic descriptions of traditional threshing to facilitate the revival of practice and further native grains research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Egyptian National Agricultural Library (ENAL) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Teff (Eragrostistef (Zucc.) Trotter) is atypical crop growing in most areas of Ethiopia, with the first area coverage. Threshing of teff can be performed indifferent ways; by hand beating, animal trampling and use of stationary threshers. In all cases of teff threshing, separation and cleaning are the most tedious and time consuming activities. In this research, the design effect of a newly developed type threshing unit was compared against SG-2000 stationary thresher. The comparison was focused on two independent variables: feed rate and drum speed, with three levels 275, 325 and 400 kg hr-1; and 22.04, 24.49 and 29.39 m s-1, respectively. The results revealed that mean values of the threshing capacity, cleaning efficiency and separation efficiency are 42.30 and 45.81 kg hr-1; 24.85% and 35.92%; and 86.33% and 93.10% for SG-2000 and the newly developed threshing units, respectively. The newly developed threshing unit (closed type concave) showed significant difference in separation and cleaning efficiency of teff over SG-2000 (the open concave type). To perform closer to 100% cleaning efficiency, it is recommended to adopt other mechanism or use of additional sieves under the concave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted to optimize machine and operational parameters for the threshing of chickpea seeds using a portable solar-operated plot thresher. Experiments were conducted at different levels of independent parameters, viz. cylinder speed (8, 10, 12 m/s), concave clearance (10, 12, 14 mm) and concave grate clearance (8, 9, 10 mm). Dependent parameters such as threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, seed damage, threshing capacity, power consumption and seed germination were assessed. Face-centered central composite design was used for experimental design, result analysis and optimization using Design-Expert 11.1.0.1 software package. The optimized combination for threshing of chickpea seeds was found to be cylinder speed (10 m/s), concave clearance (14 mm) and concave grate clearance (9 mm). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses plant macroremains on clay sherds containing organic inclusions from the Nadin – Gradina site in northern Dalmatia. Sherds of a large pottery vessel intended for storage have been found in a closed settlement context (SU 419), dated using radiocarbon method to the Early Iron Age, that is, to the period between the last quarter of the 9th century BC and the middle of the 8th century BC. Organic inclusions in pottery pastes have been used since the earliest times with the intention of influencing the properties of the final ceramic product. Such dried or fired pottery contains traces of the plant temper employed, in the form of imprints and plant remains. The identified plant remains consist mainly of remains of cereal threshing: grains, stems and leaves, glumes and remains of ears. The analysis of the imprints and remains of plant temper allowed us to identify largegrained cereals – barley (Hordeum sp.) and wheat (Triticum sp.) – and small-grained cereals: broomcorn/foxtail millet (Panicum/Setaria sp.). Among other finds, there are traces of olive (Olea europaea) and cornelian cherry (cf. Cornus mas), and of grasses (Poaceae). The imprints and plant inclusions in pottery often remain unnoticed, but they are a valuable complement to the classical analysis of plant macrofossils, and provide additional information on the economic strategies and environment of the community which produced the pottery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice threshing is one of the important factors affecting grain losses, quality and quantity. The wearing of the secondary threshing drum forks and bearing occurs crop blockage inside the threshing housing that lowers the combine harvester field capacity and increases the total grain losses. To overcome this problem, this study aimed to modify the combine harvester rice threshing device by replacing the secondary drum forks with knife blades. The combine harvester was evaluated using the modified drum, compared with the original drum. The tested treatments were rice grain moisture content (20%, 23% and 25% d.b.) and operational time (50, 100, 150 and 200 hrs.). The experiment was established and statistically designed as a factorial completely randomized block design with three replications. The obtained results revealed that modified secondary drum achieved lower values of wearing rate, lower values of rice grain total losses and higher values of threshing efficiency, compared with the original drum. So, it is recommended to use the modified secondary drum, especially at 23% grain moisture content and 50 hrs. operating time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The nut sunflower is usually cultivated in small farms and is harvested with a low capacity of harvester at high moisture content. For the rigid threshing components, impact and knead force are so large as it leads to crushing of the grain or inner stress. This reduces marketability and the germination rate of seeds. The mechanical damage degree of sunflower grain is influenced by the material of the threshing beaters, the velocity of impact, moisture contents, etc. Traditional manual methods, that separate grain from the sunflower head, take a lot of time, require large manpower, have high grain damage, and low efficiency. The objective of the present work was to develop and optimize a threshing unit for nutty sunflower that would combine safe impact velocities with appropriate adjusting of its variable to maximize threshing efficiency whilst minimizing grain damage resulting from shearing, cracking, or crushing.Materials and Methods The nutty Sunflower heads were procured from the Experimental Orchard of University of Tabriz, Iran at the moisture content of harvesting. Axial threshing units using kinematic equation and properties of the grain, designed and constructed that the variables of its components are adjustable. The beater of the thresher is flexible, which the deformation and vibration undergoing the overall rotation and impact process becomes larger with increasing speed and prevents grain damage. The power required for threshing and separation grain from heads was calculated at about 4.5 kW. Diameter and rotational drum speed value estimated using relation (V= and study of other researches as considering critical impact velocity of sunflower grain. The length of the thresher was 1.2 m that estimated by determining the capacity and the number of beaters. Threshing efficiency (%), separation efficiency (%), and grain damage (%) were parameters of performance for study. The experimental design by the Response Surface Methodology in Design Expert software 11 with central composite experiment design developed and the affecting parameters on accuracy analyzed and optimized. The threshing unit was evaluated against three threshing drum speeds of 380, 280, and 180 (rpm), feed rates 4000, 3000, and 2000 (kg (head)h-1), moisture content of 60%, 45%, and 30 (%w.b).Results and DiscussionThe results showed that the models and effect of variables were statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. The moisture content on threshing efficiency and grain damage had the greatest effect followed by drum speed and feed rate. While for separation efficiency, the feed rate had the most influence. With reducing feed rate and moisture content the threshing efficiency increased, although the decrease in drum speed reduced it. This might be due to sunflower grains adhering loosely to the head at the low moisture contents. The maximum (99.81) and minimum (96.12) percentage of threshed heads was at the moisture content of 30 and 60, respectively. The separation efficiency increased with reducing of feed rate and moisture content. Though, drum speed had insignificant efficacy statistically. The sunflower heads with high moisture content are fragile and brittle, also at high feed rates, the number of impact forces and collisions of heads rises in the condition of threshing. Therefore, the extra MOG is produced and passed from the separator grille. The feed rate of 2000 kg h-1 and moisture content of 30% was the maximum point of separation efficiency that obtained 69.82%. The grain damage decreased significantly with reducing drum speed (380 to 180) and moisture content (60 to 30). This result may be due to the reasons that at higher moisture content the husk of grains becomes soft. The goal of optimization is maximizing threshing and separation efficiency and minimizing grain damage that the optimized values of variables were determined 292.134 rpm for drum speed, 2000 kg h-1 for feed rate, and 30.7406% (w.b) for moisture content.Conclusion A threshing unit of sunflower, using properties of grains and kinematic equation, was designed and constructed. The models and effect of the variable were statistically significant on performances. The moisture content had a greater effect than other factors on threshing efficiency (%) and grain damage (%). Also, the feed rate of crops in thresher had the most influence on separation efficiency (%). With decreasing the moisture content, threshing and separation efficiency increased and grain damage reduced. The threshing efficiency (%), separation efficiency (%), and grain damage (%) were reported in the range of 96.12 to 99.81, 57.34 to 68.55, and 0.49 to 1.25, respectively. The optimized points were determined at the drum speed of 292.134 m s-1, feed rate of 2000 kg h-1, and moisture content of 30.7406% (w.b).

Copyright of Academic Journal of Agriculture / Akademik Ziraat Dergisi is the property of University of Ordu, Faculty of Agriculture, Academic Journal of Agriculture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) has been addressing the neglected postharvest sector in Ethiopia through promoting improved storage facilities and introducing handheld and motorized crop shelling and threshing machines. However, post-harvest technologies are poorly adopted by the farmers although the traditional threshing methods often result in high grain losses and low-quality produces due to low awareness of the farmers and service providers on the benefits of the technologies. This study, therefore, was conducted in May 2020 to determine the socio-economic benefits of the threshing/shelling machine so as to inform the service providers on how to improve the adoption of the machine. A total of eight youth group service providers in four woredas of Oromia and Amhara regions in Ethiopia were selected for the study. In a unimodal rainfall production region, the Bako model maize sheller and the dehusker machines were assessed, whereas in a bimodal production region the multi-crop thresher was evaluated. Primary data were sourced through Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and Key Informant Interviews (KII) and secondary data were extracted through document review. Discounted economic parameters such as Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) were used for determining the profitability of the businesses. The result of the actual cashflow analysis in the unimodal area showed that the multi-crop thresher generated a negative NPV (USD - 970)¹ with IRR value of -6% and a BCR value of 0.87. On the contrary, in the bimodal area, the NPV was found to be positive (USD 1917.3) with a BCR of 1.21 and IRR value 36%. Congruently, the Bako model maize sheller machine resulted in NPV of USD 8227.5, BCR value of 3.51 with IRR value of 133%. On the other hand, the dehusker machine generated NPV of USD 2247.5 with a BCR of 1.45, and IRR of 24%. The partial budget analysis of the farmers revealed that the threshing machine reduced the threshing costs by USD158.2 (51.9%) per hectare of land compared to the traditional threshing method. On the basis of the minimum food energy requirement, in the two districts alone, the maize grain that was lost through traditional shelling would have fed 3,939 individuals or 788 households, whereas for teff crop, the loss would have fed 6,163 adults or 1233 households throughout the year. Based on the findings, the authors recommend to scale-up the introduction of the machines in the bimodal production areas where two harvesting seasons exist and increase the service charge and working hours-in the unimodal area to improve entrepreneurs' profit and adoption of the machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The nut sunflower is usually cultivated in small farms and is harvested with a low capacity of harvester at high moisture content. For the rigid threshing components, impact and knead force are so large as it leads to crushing of the grain or inner stress. This reduces marketability and the germination rate of seeds. The mechanical damage degree of sunflower grain is influenced by the material of the threshing beaters, the velocity of impact, moisture contents, etc. Traditional manual methods, that separate grain from the sunflower head, take a lot of time, require large manpower, have high grain damage, and low efficiency. The objective of the present work was to develop and optimize a threshing unit for nutty sunflower that would combine safe impact velocities with appropriate adjusting of its variable to maximize threshing efficiency whilst minimizing grain damage resulting from shearing, cracking, or crushing. Materials and Methods The nutty Sunflower heads were procured from the Experimental Orchard of University of Tabriz, Iran at the moisture content of harvesting. Axial threshing units using kinematic equation and properties of the grain, designed and constructed that the variables of its components are adjustable. The beater of the thresher is flexible, which the deformation and vibration undergoing the overall rotation and impact process becomes larger with increasing speed and prevents grain damage. The power required for threshing and separation grain from heads was calculated at about 4.5 kW. Diameter and rotational drum speed value estimated using relation (V= and study of other researches as considering critical impact velocity of sunflower grain. The length of the thresher was 1.2 m that estimated by determining the capacity and the number of beaters. Threshing efficiency (%), separation efficiency (%), and grain damage (%) were parameters of performance for study. The experimental design by the Response Surface Methodology in Design Expert software 11 with central composite experiment design developed and the affecting parameters on accuracy analyzed and optimized. The threshing unit was evaluated against three threshing drum speeds of 380, 280, and 180 (rpm), feed rates 4000, 3000, and 2000 (kg (head) h-1), moisture content of 60%, 45%, and 30 (%w.b). Results and Discussion The results showed that the models and effect of variables were statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. The moisture content on threshing efficiency and grain damage had the greatest effect followed by drum speed and feed rate. While for separation efficiency, the feed rate had the most influence. With reducing feed rate and moisture content the threshing efficiency increased, although the decrease in drum speed reduced it. This might be due to sunflower grains adhering loosely to the head at the low moisture contents. The maximum (99.81) and minimum (96.12) percentage of threshed heads was at the moisture content of 30 and 60, respectively. The separation efficiency increased with reducing of feed rate and moisture content. Though, drum speed had insignificant efficacy statistically. The sunflower heads with high moisture content are fragile and brittle, also at high feed rates, the number of impact forces and collisions of heads rises in the condition of threshing. Therefore, the extra MOG is produced and passed from the separator grille. The feed rate of 2000 kg h-1 and moisture content of 30% was the maximum point of separation efficiency that obtained 69.82%. The grain damage decreased significantly with reducing drum speed (380 to 180) and moisture content (60 to 30). This result may be due to the reasons that at higher moisture content the husk of grains becomes soft. The goal of optimization is maximizing threshing and separation efficiency and minimizing grain damage that the optimized values of variables were determined 292.134 rpm for drum speed, 2000 kg h-1 for feed rate, and 30.7406% (w.b) for moisture content. Conclusion A threshing unit of sunflower, using properties of grains and kinematic equation, was designed and constructed. The models and effect of the variable were statistically significant on performances. The moisture content had a greater effect than other factors on threshing efficiency (%) and grain damage (%). Also, the feed rate of crops in thresher had the most influence on separation efficiency (%). With decreasing the moisture content, threshing and separation efficiency increased and grain damage reduced. The threshing efficiency (%), separation efficiency (%), and grain damage (%) were reported in the range of 96.12 to 99.81, 57.34 to 68.55, and 0.49 to 1.25, respectively. The optimized points were determined at the drum speed of 292.134 m s-1, feed rate of 2000 kg h-1, and moisture content of 30.7406% (w.b). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a controlled experiment to assess the impact of a switch to mechanized harvesting and mechanized threshing on smallholder rice farms in Nigeria. We measure how food losses and efficiency compare to manual harvesting and threshing practices, and evaluate the business case of mechanization for smallholder farmers, as well as the effect on total Greenhouse Gas emissions. Furthermore, we discuss observations on the socioeconomic impact of mechanization of farm operations, in particular on the role of women and youth. The experimental results show that mechanized harvesting and threshing not only significantly reduce losses and increase yields per hectare but also have a positive socio-economic impact. Mechanized harvesting and threshing are labor-saving, which lead in the case study to positive impacts, such as freeing up time of women during the busy harvest period for other activities and providing new opportunities for rural youth. A comparison of the costs farmers incur for on one hand manual harvesting and threshing and on the other hand mechanized harvesting and threshing show that mechanization of these activities constitutes a positive business case for farmers: a relatively small cost increase is offset by large by considerable yield (and therefore revenue) increases. Furthermore, when factoring in the fuel use of harvesting and threshing machinery, increased greenhouse gas emissions from mechanized practices are negligible compared to the food loss and waste induced greenhouse gas emissions that are avoided by reducing losses with the more efficient mechanized equipment.

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A cowpea thresher that uses petrol engine was developed to overcome drudgery of threshing with manually operated thresher and also to replace motorized cowpea thresher that cannot be used in areas where there is no supply of electricity. The performance tests on the machine were replicated three times using 10000, 8000 and 6000 grams of kannanado cowpea pods at the threshing cylinder speed of 700, 800 and 900 rpm each and moisture contents of 11.05%, 13.65% and 14.75% respectively based on the following parameters; Threshing efficiency, throughput capacity and percentage seed damage. The findings of the tests showed that the thresher had highest threshing efficiency of 98% at moisture content of 11.05%, threshing cylinder speed of 900 rpm and feed rate of 6 kg/hr. The maximum throughput capacity was observed to be 46.18 kg/hr at the feed rate of 10 kg/hr, 11.05% grain moisture content and threshing cylinder speed of 900 rpm. A highest cleaning efficiency and grain damage of 93.06% and 4.90% respectively were observed. This revealed that as the cylinder speed increased the threshing and cleaning efficiency and the throughput capacity also increased whereas feed rate and moisture content were decreased. The test also showed that high moisture content has a tendency to reduce the mechanical seed damage for the variety (kannanado) of cowpea investigated. Therefore, cowpea moisture contents of 11.05 % and threshing cylinder speeds of 900 rpm are the crop-machine parameters combination for optimum thresher performance. The performance of the machine is satisfactory; small-scale farmers will find more comfort in using it for threshing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 5TG-85 buckwheat thresher was designed to solve the problems of low mechanical harvesting level of buckwheat in hilly and mountainous areas, high work intensity of threshing and grain cleaning, and few available machines and tools. The machine adopts rasp bar-nail tooth combined threshing device and air screen cleaning device, which can complete threshing and grain cleaning at one time. In the paper, the structure, transmission system and key components of the thresher were designed, the parameters were calculated, and the threshing performance test was carried out. The results show that when the moisture content of buckwheat stem is 75%, the moisture content of grain is 17%, and the grass grain ratio is 4.4, when the rotating speed of the threshing drum of the thresher is 500r/min, the threshing gap is 10mm, the feeding amount is 0.8kg/s, the air speed of suction mouth is 8m/s, and the vibration frequency of vibrating screen is 25.12 rad.s-1. The crushing rate Zp is 1.13%, the impurity content Zz is 2.73%, the unthreshed loss rate Sw is 0.07%, the entrainment loss rate Sj is 1.77%, the cleaning loss rate Sq is 1.96%, the spatter loss rate Sf is 0.62% and the total loss rate S is 4.42%. The threshing effect is good, which meets the requirements of buckwheat threshing. The development of this machine will reduce the manual cost of buckwheat threshing, improve the work efficiency, improve the mechanized harvest level of buckwheat, and promote the development of buckwheat industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Ragi (Eleusine Coracana) is a major food crop for the tribal population of India. OBJECTIVE: This study emphasizes the need to consider ergonomics aspects in the design and development of a pedal operated ragi thresher (PORT) for tribal people, and assesses the drudgery as well as ergonomic evaluation of a developed thresher against the conventional practice. METHODS: Thirty subjects (male = 15 and female = 15) from the tribal region were evaluated ergonomically. The physiological responses of the subjects were studied and their performance was compared. RESULTS: The results revealed that the working heart rate, oxygen consumption rate and overall discomfort rating were significantly higher in case of traditional threshing as compared to those in case of PORT. Postural analysis identified the traditional method as the most fatigue one as the person has to lift the hand above shoulder level repeatedly and has to sit in a squatting posture for long period. CONCLUSION: The drudgery and occupational hazards to public health involved in the traditional method of threshing was reduced by using the PORT. Furthermore, the traditional method involved continuous stressed actions across the entire body, whereas the PORT involved only the lower limbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) is an important perennial medicinal and aromatic plant belonging to the Lamiaceae family. Rosemary is widely produced in Turkey for its oil which can be extracted from the plants when flowers are in buds. In Turkey, a significant amount of domestic and foreign trade of rosemary is conducted. In 2018-2020, 2088 t of rosemary plants were imported, while in the same years 2077 t were exported. In this study, the performance indexes of a threshing and separating unit designed according to the physicomechanical properties of the rosemary were determined. The operating parameters of the machine were determined at three different moisture contents and adjusted according to the harvest moisture values. The threshing efficiency, work efficiency, power requirement, and specific energy consumption values of the threshing unit were determined, while separating efficiency, work efficiency and specific power consumption of separating unit of the developed system were determined. According to the study results, the threshing efficiency of the rosemary plant varied between 44.00% and 96.97%. Work efficiency of the thresher varied between 1.18 and 15.34 kg/h. Power requirements and specific energy consumption of the threshing unit were obtained as 0.19-1.05 kW and 0.02-0.37 kW·h/h, respectively. On the other hand, the separating efficiency of the separating unit for the rosemary plant varied between 44.27% and 85.24%. Maximum and minimum values of work efficiency were found as 0.75 kg/h and 5.52 kg/h. Specific power consumption of the unit ranged from 3.95 to 39.95 kW/kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This critical collision damage force of millet and sweet buckwheat grain and the shelling force of shelled granular materials are important basic data for research of threshing and shelling technology and equipment. In order to master the linear velocity and collision force of grain with different moisture content when collision damage occurs, a centrifugal collision test device is designed. Based on the dynamic and kinematic analysis of grain in the centrifugal rotary table, the collision force between grain and steel plate was measured by PVDF piezoelectric pressure sensor and data acquisition system. The results showed that: under the same moisture content, the higher the rotational speed, the higher the grain crushing rate; at the same rotational speed, with the increase of moisture content, the crushing rate first decreased and then increased. When the moisture content of Jingu-21 and Yuqiao-4 is 19.7% and 17.8%, respectively, the grain crushing rate was the lowest. In terms of the anti-collision ability of grain, the optimum moisture content of threshing is between 19.7% and 21% for millet. For sweet buckwheat, the optimum moisture content of threshing is 17.8% ~19%, while the optimum moisture content of shelling by centrifugal sheller is about 11%. The faster the rotational speed of centrifugal rotary table is, the greater the linear speed of grain is, and the greater the collision force is. When the linear velocity of grain was 8.32 m/s and 11.30 m/s respectively, the millet grain moisture content was 11.1% and 20.9% respectively, damage began to appear, and the corresponding collision force was about 5.51 N and 10.6 N, respectively. When the linear velocity of grain was 8.32 m/s and 11.30 m/s respectively, and the moisture content was 11.1% and 22.8% of the sweet buckwheat grain respectively, damage began to appear, the corresponding collision force was about 8.92 N and 12.79 N, respectively. When the rotating speed of rotary table was 910 r/min, the linear speed of grain was 27.05 m/s, the crushing rate of millet and sweet buckwheat grain in harvest period were 56.30% and 63.76%, respectively, and the crushing rate of millet and buckwheat grain with 11.1% moisture content were 86.27% and 89.4%, respectively. The research results can provide theoretical basis for design and optimization of millet and sweet buckwheat combine harvester, threshing device and shelling device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modelling the threshing and separation process involves the application of a method of description, analysis and analytical determination of system performance: threshing apparatus - working process. The modelling of the process of separating the seeds passing through an axial flow threshing device was performed taking into account that the separation function ss(x) is given depending on the length of the threshing apparatus. Then, models were made to describe the variation of the percentage (cumulative) of separated seeds ss (x=L), corresponding to the modification of the threshing apparatus functional parameters (depending on the peripheral speed of the rotor, the flow of straw parts and the moisture of straw parts). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering properties of grass seeds are most important for the development of post-harvest mechanization and operations. Therefore engineering properties of fluffy as well as true seeds were determined in view of its important in development of post-harvest mechanization. The mean values of length, width, thickness, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, surface area, volume, thousands seed mass and bulk density of fluffy Deenanath grass seed were observed in the range of 5.23-7.17 mm, 2.10-3.44 mm, 1.17-2.49 mm, 3.07- 4.13 mm, 2.53- 3.69 mm, 41.01-60.13 %, 19.12-43.70 mm2, 3.70-18.24 mm3, 0.789-0.849 g and 7.41-7.89 kg/m3 respectively. However, for true seeds of Deenanath grass, the range of these values varied from 2.23- 2.65 mm, 0.69-0.95 mm, 0.47-0.69 mm, 1.16-1.40 mm, 0.93-1.17 mm, 38.69- 47.33 %, 2.67-4.31 mm2, 3.60-9.64 mm3, 0.468-0.488 g and 602.97-624.29 kg/m3 respectively moisture level of 9 % db. Determined properties of fluffy as well as true seeds of Deenanath would be utilized to develop threshing, cleaning, grading, seed storage and packaging operations and machineries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annotation: In The Field Of Agriculture, Cereals Require All The Available Opportunities To Increase Grain Yield And Grain Quality, First Of All, By Studying The Characteristics Of Early Ripening, To Increase Their Genetic Characteristics, Potential Yield Opportunities. Therefore, In Our Study, The Duration And Yield Of 37 Lines And Local Varietal-Growth Phases, Which Became Stable During The Selection Processes Of Winter Soft Wheat, Were Studied In The Control Seed-Plot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A better understanding of field performances for traditional harvesting methods and tools is essential in facilitating future improvement on their design and overall efficiency. Performance of different manual harvesting tools and methods was evaluated under farmer field conditions for IR841 and Nerica L20 rice varieties in Benin. Results from evaluation showed that an average of 84 to 161 man-hours was required to thresh a hectare of rice field using either the threshing by impact “bambam” or bag beating method. Less time was however required to thresh IR841 than Nerica L20 varieties, irrespective of manual threshing method used. Similarly, 59 to 91 man-hours was required to harvest a hectare of field using either a cutlass or sickle. However, to harvest Nerica L20 required less time than IR841 variety, irrespective of cutting tool used. Harvesting efficiency ranged from 78.9% to 85.3% with the sickle producing better harvesting efficiency than the cutlass irrespective of rice variety. Energy expenditure ranged from 471 W to 491 W for combine harvesting, 685 W to 1161 W for manual cutting with cutlass, 746 W to 860 W for manual cutting with sickle, 676 W to 873 W during threshing by impact “bambam” and 408 W to 409 W during traditional winnowing of threshed paddy. Whereas a mini combine harvester is better at significantly reducing drudgery compared to manual rice harvesting methods, the use of sickle is much preferred to cutlass in the case of manual rice harvesting. However, harvesting IR841 rice variety was generally less laborious than Nerica L20 variety. It is however recommended that further work on performance evaluation of different harvesting systems is carried out under experimental field conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Mechanical threshing used when preparing maize seeds for planting subjects seed to damage and reduces seed quality. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of mechanical threshing on the quality of maize seed threshed at different moisture contents (MCs). Seeds of dent maize JK968 and flint maize DD2 were threshed at 12, 15, 18, 21, and 24% MC. The damage degree was determined by iodine staining, and seed vigor was assessed by standard germination (SG), cold test germination (CTG), accelerated aging germination (AAG), seedling emergence rate, and seedling root and shoot length. The results showed that the damage percentage increased, and the seed vigor parameters decreased with increasing seed MC during threshing in both cultivars. For obtaining high seed quality, indicated by at least 90, 85, and 80% of SG, AAG, and CTG, respectively, JK 968 and DD2 should be threshed at MC lower than 15 and 18%, respectively. Furthermore, the damage mainly occurred in the apical part of seeds, irrespective of the threshing MC in both cultivars. When the embryo was damaged, seedling emergence rates were significantly reduced with great influence on shoot length. Damage to the endosperm resulted in little effect on seedling performance. Flint maize DD2 was more tolerant to mechanical threshing than dent maize JK968. These results provided technical reference for the production and processing of high vigor maize seeds.

During rice threshing, stems are easily broken and usually mixed with the grains, making it difficult for further automatic processing. Thus, in order to improve the efficiency of grain cleaning during harvesting, it is beneficial to reduce the breakages of rice stems. The threshold values of rice stalks in both the transverse and longitudinal directions under tension, compression and bending forces were studied. Based on the real time threshing loads that occur during threshing, the breaking paths of the rice stalks were determined by applying combined loading tests and fracture mechanisms proposed. When subjected to single load, rice stalk is a hard material to break. Tension fracture is the major failure mechanism of the rice internodes that are wrapped with leaf sheath. Combinations of bending & tension or compression & tension can easily break a complete rice stalk or even a cluster of rice straws. Therefore, breaking paths of rice stalks during threshing include the rice stem internodes (with leaf sheath) are easily fractured under the coupling of three-point bending and tension; the stem cores are broken under compression and tension, but the stem nodes are brittle and susceptible to initial damage caused by bending or compression. These findings can help facilitate design of the combine harvesters by assisting with the design of mechanisms that can reduce rice stem breakages during threshing and improve grain stalk separation. • Breaking paths of the rice stalks during threshing process. • Real time threshing loads are characterised through in-field tests. • Fracture mechanisms of the rice stalks are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The auxiliary roll of the rice combine harvester were developed and manufactured from local material to reduce wearing rate for threshing device also minimize fuel consumption and energy requirements. Replacing auxiliary roll knives arranged in a spiral instead by forks separating on length were 90 cm with seven rows and each row has four blades to increase the efficiency of separating the seed. The measurement indices of the auxiliary roll before and after development were threshing efficiency, threshing capacity, fuel consumption, power required, energy requirements, device mass losses percent, wearing rate, wearing resistance, critical wearing value, specific wear and expected life. during the harvesting operation of rice crop the rustles showed It is recommended to use the knife as a threshing device because auxiliary roll threshing efficiency increased by 0.2% threshing capacity increased by 16.83 %, fuel consumption decreased by 0.16 %, power required decreased by 0.15 %, energy requirements decreased by 0.33 % device mass losses percent decreased by 1.4 %, wearing rate decreased by 0.11 % wearing resistance decreased by 0.12%. critical wearing value increased by 34 %, specific wear decreased by 25 % and expected life increased by 78.60% all this result tested after 500h operating time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive breakage of stalk in the process of rape threshing has become the main reason for the entrainment loss and the increase of the whole power consumption. Taking the harvest rape stalks as the research object, this study aims to investigate the collision and crushing behavior between threshing nail tooth and rape stem, further to clarify the breakage mechanism of rape stems caused by the collision of threshing spike tooth on a self-made collision test-bed. A prescale film was used to measure the impact force between the rape stalks and spike tooth, according to the force and trajectory. A single factor and an orthogonal experiments were carried out, where the breakage rate of rape stalk as the index, and the length of rape stalk, feeding times, rotational speed of cylinder, and type of spike tooth as factors. An attempt was made to explore the collision form and collision force between the threshing nail tooth and the stem of rapeseed, thereby to figure out the main factors affecting the breakage rate of stalk. The results were as follows: The collision process between single spike tooth and rape stalk was a multiple high-speed instantaneous collision, where 89% of the collisions were multiple collisions, and only 11% had one collision, particularly that the collision times were strongly related to the position of impact point on the spike tooth. In the process of instantaneous multiple collisions, the collision force decreased with the number of collisions. In the case of test conditions, the single impact force was 13.25 N, which was less than the yield limit of radial compression in a rape stalk. The stalk collided only once cannot be broken. The breakage rate of stalk was positively related to the stalk length, feeding times, and rotational speed of cylinder. In three kinds of nail tooth, cutter surface, cylinder, and plane, there was the greatest influence of nail teeth formed on the cutter face on the stem breakage rate, whereas, there was the least influence of plane nail teeth on the stem breakage rate. In the experimental conditions, the crushing rates of the upper, middle and lower parts for the main stem were 84.4%, 91.1%, and 97.8%, respectively, after feeding the rape stem into the collision test-bed for 8 times, and the fragmentation rate for the lateral branches of the rape was 42.2%, indicating that the broken rate of main stem was much higher than that of lateral branch. The orthogonal test showed that, there was the greatest effect of the length of rape stalk on the breakage rate, followed by the rotational speed of cylinder, and the type of spike tooth, whereas, the effect of feeding times was the smallest within the scope of the selected parameters, where the stalk length was 100 mm, the roller speed was 500 r/min, the feeding times were 2 times, and the tooth shape was flat nail teeth, as well as the breakage rate of rape stalk was the lowest. The finding can provide a sound basis for the optimal design of rape threshing device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indiana native Carl Doerner recalls life on his grandparents' farm in Franklin County, Indiana, in the early and mid-twentieth century. Oliver Baas and Ida Zimmer Baas followed the traditional, diversified agriculture of small family farms and the traditional patterns of farm labor. Doerner writes of rural life before electrification; threshing with steam-engine-powered machinery; raising cows, chickens, and pigs; preserving meat and canning from a kitchen garden; and maintaining traditions of neighbors working together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grains mechanical Breakage during the paddy threshing is a most important reason for decreasing the final yield of rice. Head rice yield (HRY) can be increased if the rice kernel was supported in its structure by parboiling (PB) the grains. Parboiling process is able to reduce the threshing mechanical damage, but it makes the grains an easy target for infecting with harmful microorganisms, especially fungi. Two salty water solutions S1 and S2 and two acidic water A1 and A2 were used as a soaking solutions in the treatments of the parboiling rice grain process. These treatments were used to detect the increase of the HRY percentage and the decrease of the fungal growth on the rice grain. The results showed that the parboiling has treated the cracks of rice kernels, which was created during the mechanical threshing, therefore, HRY increased significantly from 46% to 68%. Six saprophytic fungi Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Rhizopus stolonifer, Pencillium notatum, Alternaria alternate and Fusarium solani were isolated from treated rice grain. The acidity concentration in the soaking water of PB A2 treatment was a good inhibitor of the fungal growth (12.66%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corn was frozen at harvest time in high-latitude areas, when corn kernel is wetter and more easily broken. When frozen corn was threshed and separated by the longitudinal axial threshing cylinder of a combine harvester, it caused a significantly high kernel damage rate and loss rate. The process parameters of threshing cylinder were optimized using RSM (response surface method) and NSGA-II (Non-Dominated Sorted Genetic Algorithm-II). The drum speed (Ds), feed rate (Fr) and concave clearance (Cc) were determined as the optimized process parameters. The loss rate (Lr) and damage rate (Dr) were indicators of operational performance. The RSM was used to establish a mathematical model between process parameters and indicators. With an elite strategy, NSGA-II was used for multi-objective optimization to obtain the optimal operational performance of the threshing cylinder. Overall, when the drum speed was selected as 384.1 rpm, the feed rate as 8.6 kg/s and the concave clearance as 40.5 mm, according to the requirement of corn harvest, the best operational performance of the longitudinal axial threshing cylinder on frozen corn was obtained. The Lr was 1.98% and the Dr was 3.49%. This result indicated that the applicability of the optimal process parameters and the optimization method of combining NSGA-II and RSM was effective for determining the optimal process parameters. This will provide an optimization method for synchronously reducing the loss rate and damage rate of grain harvesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to substantiate the directions of reducing the damage to seeds during harvesting of grain crops. Threshing-separating devices of combine harvesters, physicomechanical characteristics of plants using wheat as an example, and parameters and modes of threshing devices that reduce grain damage were studied. It was revealed that grain damage is a consequence of the fact that parameters and operating modes of combines' threshing-separating devices are not consistent with harvested plants' characteristics. For threshing grain without damage, the shock pulse should be enough to separate the grain from inflorescence but be less than the force restricted by elastic properties (elastic limit) of the grain. The dependence of the average value of the bonding strength between the grain and the spike on the temperature and humidity, air temperature, and the standing time since reaching full ripeness can be described by a regression equation with a correlation coefficient of 0.89 and a determination coefficient of 0.79. This equation can be applied for the operational control of the rotational speed of the drum. For the operational control of feeding the harvested crop to the threshing device of the combine in the fields, the yield in individual sections of which varies significantly, methods developed for the introduction of precision farming are proposed. To obtain information on increasing the range between the bonding strength and elastic properties of the grain and to determine the dependence of the bonding strength between the grain and the spike on the properties of plants, it is necessary to study properties of both commercial and new cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing oil sunflower threshing device cannot meet the requirements of oil sunflower threshing under different conditions. Aiming at the problems of the low oil sunflower threshing rate and the high breaking rate during the threshing process, a threshing device of oil sunflower with variable clearance based on multi-bar mechanism is designed in this paper. The structure and the working principle of the oil-sunflower threshing device with variable clearance were introduced, and the mechanisms of kinematics of the clearance adjustment mechanism and angle adjustment mechanism of the structure of variable clearance concave screen were analyzed, the motion trajectory analysis and solution were performed to determine the structural parameters, the variable clearance range of the variable clearance concave sieve was 20-60 mm. A test bench of the oil-sunflower threshing device with variable clearance was developed. The threshing test was completed at the Key Laboratory of Innovation Design Laboratory of Xinjiang Agricultural Engineering Equipment. The test object was oil sunflower No. 31 with the disk diameter of 180-220 mm and the disk thickness of 25-40 mm, the weight of single sunflower disk was 300-380 g, the moisture content of the sunflower disk was 29.59%. The test was performed according to the GB/T5982-2017 thresher test method and the DB37/T2878.2-2016 technical requirements. The orthogonal experiment of three factors and three levels was carried out, threshing rate and breaking rate were taken as the indexes and the cylinder speed，the threshing clearance as well as feed rate were the factors. The test results showed that during the threshing process, the factors that affect the oil sunflower threshing rate and breaking rate are threshing clearance, drum speed and feed rate. The optimal combination of operating parameters was that the threshing clearance 35 mm, the drum speed 280 r/min and the feed rate 1.8 kg/s. Through the analysis of variance, it was concluded that the threshing clearance had a very significant effect on the oil sunflower threshing rate and breaking rate, the drum speed was significant, and the feed amount was not significant. Multiple repeated tests were performed under a better combination of operating parameters. The test results showed that the average threshing rate of oil sunflower was 99.01%, and the breaking rate was 2.28%, which met the national standards that the threshing rate greater than 98 % and the breaking rate less than 5%. The better operating parameters of this study are only applicable to the material conditions tested in this paper, but the oil sunflower harvesting operations are complicated, and the factors such as oil sunflower varieties, moisture content, and output are also different. Adjusting the diameter of the threshing concave plate sieve, changing the threshing clearance and other working parameters is to meet the requirements of oil sunflower threshing under different conditions. The research results can provide reference for the design of subsequent oil sunflower threshing device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In crop biofortification research, threshing part is the primary place of contamination while dealing with grain mineral traits such as iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) density, thus type of threshing operation is one of the important and effective factors for efficient grain mineral traits determination. This study is aimed at the effects of threshing methods namely power-operated single-head thresher and manual-hand threshing on Fe and Zn density estimation. In this context, 50 pearl millet progenies each from two broad-based populations (AIMP 92901 and ICMR 312) were evaluated in field condition and tested for machine and hand threshing. Grain samples were analyzed for Fe and Zn density using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical-Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) method. The analysis of variance showed the significant difference among population progenies for these micronutrients by recording two-fold variations for Fe (40-91 mg kg-1) and Zn (32-74 mg kg- 1) density. Threshing method had significant effect, however, estimated Fe and Zn values from both the methods were highly comparable, further non-significant t-test and linear correlations-coefficients showed machine-threshed samples results were highly positively significantly correlated with hand-threshed samples values for both micronutrients (r=0.88 to 0.93; p