Tractor Front Mounted Vertical Conveyor Reaper

The machine is used for harvesting cereal crops like wheat and paddy. It consists of a 76 mm pitch reciprocating cutter bar assembly, seven crop row dividers, and two vertical conveyor belts fitted with lugs, pressure springs, pulleys and gearbox for the power transmission system. The crop row dividers are fitted in front of the cutter bar assembly and the star wheels are mounted over the crop row dividers.

The machine is mounted in front of the tractor and the power to the machine is given from tractor PTO. The height of the machine above ground is controlled by tractor hydraulic system with the help of pulleys and steel ropes. After the crop is cut by the cutter bar, it is held in a vertical position and delivered to one side of the machine by lugged belt conveyors and fall on the ground perpendicular to the direction of movement of machine in the form of a windrow. The field capacity of the machine is 0.4 ha/h at 2.5-3.5 km/h forward speed. The cost of operation is about Rs. 1600/- as against Rs. 3200/ha by traditional method.

Tractor Mounted Fodder Harvester

A tractor (41 kW) operated flail type harvester-cum-chopper-cum-loader was designed to facilitate harvesting, chopping and loading operations simultaneously. The crops viz. bajra, sorghum, maize, barseem and oats with height 1.00 to 2.50 m and stalk density 20-80 plants/m2 can be harvested successfully. The machine consists of a rotary shaft mounted with blades (flails) to harvest the crop, auger for conveying the cut crop, cutters for chopping and conveying chopped fodder through outlet into the trailer. The blades on the rotary shaft are staggered in three rows of 13 blades each on a horizontal axis perpendicular to the direction of motion. The blades cut the crop and auger conveys it to the chopper unit.

The chopping mechanism having 4 blades cuts crops into pieces and the chopped material is thrown out at high speed and is filled into the hitched trailer to the machine. It also harvested lodged and over matured crop without any difficulty. The capacity of the machine is 0.20 ha/h at a forward speed of 2.5-4.0 km/h. The cost of operation of this machine is Rs. 1500/ha against Rs. 3200/ha by conventional method.

Source:ICAR