The Effect of Tillage Depth on some Machinery Unit Performance Indicators, Soil Physical Properties and Germination Percentage using Combine Equipment

A field experiment was conducted to determine the effect of the locally manufactured agricultural machine on some performance indicators of the mechanical unit and some physical soil properties in a silty clay loamy soil texture in one of the fields of the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences / University of Baghdad/Al-Jadriya for the spring season of 2023. The experiment used a tractor type (MF-650), and the study included one factor, the plowing depths, with three levels: 15, 20, and 25 cm. The study examined some performance indicators of the mechanical unit, including: pulling force, fuel consumption, slippage percentage, soil bulk density, soil moisture content, total soil porosity, germination percentage, number of dropped seeds, and the percentage of broken or damaged dropped seeds. The experimental design used was a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications, and the least significant difference (LSD) test was used at a significance level of 0.05 to compare the means of the variables. The results indicated that increasing the plowing depth from 15 to 20 and then to 25 cm led to a significant increase in the percentage of slippage, which increased from 4.37% to 7.37% and then to 14.33%, respectively. The pulling force also increased from 5.33 to 9.67 and then to 14.44 kilonewtons, respectively. The fuel consumption increased from 43.32 to 56.84 and then to 66.67 liters per hectare, respectively. The bulk density of the soil increased from 1.06 to 1.08 and then to 1.15 micrograms per cubic meter, respectively. There was an increase in soil moisture content from 14.11 to 15.19 and then to 16.63%, respectively. There was no significant effect of plowing depth on the percentage of germination, the number of dropped seeds, and the percentage of broken seeds.