HARVESTING SEEDS OF PERENNIAL FORAGE GRASSE
Different practices are applied for harvesting seeds of perennial forage grasses. One of them is a non-waste technology with processing the total yield on a station to run seed losses down to 5–10%. Actually, straight-cutting by harvester-thresher with special tools is mainly used harvesting grass seeds. Such practice runs yield losses down to 20–29%, but there are some difficulties related to seed detachment and its damage under threshing. These methods are inefficient, and require excessive energy costs, because the total grassy mass must be threshed. One of the modern seed harvesting methods is to ripple growing plants, which allows correcting existent problems. The All-Russian Williams Fodder Research Institute developed a test rippling facility with a drive roll with spiked tines. During harvesting perennial grasses for seeds, its action was compared with the action of the combine SK-5 “Niva” with the tool 54-108A. When rippling the white clover variety “VIK 70”, seed losses amounted to 2.5%, meadow grass — 6.6%, the red clover variety “VIK 7” — 5.0%. When using the combine SK-5 “Niva” with the tool 54-108A, losses made up 8, 50.7, and 13.6% respectively. Thus, rippling growing plants is more effective, which allows recommending it for farming.
Source: https://kormoproizvodstvo.ru/en/archive/5-2017/ , p. 43
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