Implement Draught and Power Requirement for Tillage operations in Gezira Soil (With Special Reference to Massad Area)

An experiment was conducted during the year 2011 at Massad Centre for Technology Transfer and Extension (latitude 14° 24¢N and longitude 33° 29¢E) in Gazira Scheme-Sudan to study tractor power requirement for two implements commonly used for tillage operations in Gazira Scheme. The implements were a chisel plough as a primary tillage implement and an offset disc harrow for secondary tillage. Power requirements were studied under wet and dry soil conditions and for two depths of work for each implement (20-30cm, 5-10cm). Effect of implement draught on the performance of 2WD (120 hp) tractor was investigated in terms of wheel slip (%) under the field conditions of the experiment using different levels of wheel ballast. Draught requirement for the chisel plough was found to be as a range between11 to 15 kN. And for disc harrowing the values ranged between 7 to 10 kN. Maximum power required at a speed of 7 km/h was 29 kW (39 hp). Optimum performance (with 10 to 15% wheel slip) during chisel ploughing was achieved with water ballast at the rear wheels to 50% of the tyre volume and 50 kg of cast iron weight on each rear wheel. During disc harrowing, optimum performance was achieved with 25% water ballast in the rear wheels with additional 100 kg of cast iron weight on the rear wheels