Sistema mecanizado para coleta de dados de perdas e distribuição de palha na colheita mecanizada de soja

Abstract

Even with the all the technology applied to soybean production system In Brazil, harvesting operation must be well conducted in order to minimize losses levels and allow a satisfactory straw distribution on the soil surface. Collecting data for such evaluation are labor intense, time consuming, and in most cases, disturb the routine of the regular operation. Thus, this study aimed on the development and evaluation of a mechanized system for data collection regarding grain losses as well as distribution of straw, with the goal of minimizing disturbance of combine operation, and amount of labor especially in situations where intensive data acquisition for the evaluation of machine performance is necessary. The SIMEPECO (Loss Measurement System for Mechanical Harvest) was developed to fit in the rear of the platform header and at the bottom of the rear axle of the machine. Validation of the proposed setup was accomplished up on comparison of results obtained with SIMEPECO (M2) and well known methods such as the EMBRAPA-Soja (M1) for losses and straw Collector (M3) for straw distribution. Results regarding total and header losses obtained with M2 was systematically higher than M1, probably due to geometry of the effective area used for data collection. Regarding straw distribution profile on the evaluated condition, M2 seem to be as representative as M3. The proposed system presented good potential for use in experiments requiring exhaustive data collection regarding grain loss and straw distribution profile.