Combines Work Quality in Maize Silage Production

The paper presents testing results of three silage combines employed in maize silage preparation in Toplica region. It is focused on determination of technical working parameters of tested machines. Achieved results verified the superiority of silage combine John Deere 5820, which produced the chopped mass having particle lengths of the smallest deviation with respect to the preset cutting length. In this case, the average length of chopped mass was 9.9 mm, having 69 % mass in the range up to 8 mm. The other two silage combines produced lower mass percentage of this fraction and larger variations of particle lengths with respect to the preset length. Minimum mass flow rate was evidenced for the silage combine Fortschrit E-286: 7.3 kg s-1 (26.3 t h-1) and the surface productivity of 0.83 ha h-1, at the average speed of 4.0 km h-1. Maximum production rate was achieved with silage combine John Deere 5820: 10.9 kg s-1 (39.1 t h-1) at average working velocity of 4.7 km h-1 and surface efficiency of 1.21 ha h-1