Can Digger Blades Wear Affect the Quality of Peanut Digging?

The Brazilian peanut harvest has become fully mechanized and is divided into two operations: digging and gathering. Nerveless, in both operations, it can be found losses, and it could avoid doing machine maintenance adequate. This study aimed to evaluate the quality and quantify the interference of the harvesting period (morning, afternoon, and night) and the wear of the digging-shaking-inverter mechanism (blades) in the loss indexes in the digging operation. The experiment was carried out in a commercial field. Worn and new blades were used to dig peanuts at three different periods of the day. Losses were quantified by collecting 20 points separated by 20 m for each treatment. The experimental design was in bands using a factorial 3x2 analysis, was three shifts of digging and two blades wear condition. Digging with worn blades increased the losses in the three different periods compared to using new blades, and the farmers can increase profit by 22% by reducing the digging losses. Brazilian peanut harvests have been fully mechanized and are divided into two operations, namely digging and gathering. In both operations, losses are observed, and it is essential to avoid losses to maintain adequate machine maintenance. In this study, we aimed to quantify the interference of the harvesting period (morning, afternoon, and night) and wear of the digger-inverter mechanism (blades) on the loss indexes during the dig operation. The experiment was conducted in a commercial field using worn and new blades to dig peanuts at three different periods of the day. Losses were quantified by measuring data at 20 points, which were separated by 20 m for each treatment. The shift work did not interfere with peanut losses. However, the blade condition exhibited a strong influence on increasing the losses. Peanut growers can increase profits by up to 22% by reducing digging losses solely by periodically changing blades.