Performance of Combine Harvesters for Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) in the Mechanized Rain Fed Schemes of Eastern Sudan

Abstract

Direct combine harvesting of crops helps in solving the problem of
labor shortage during harvest period, timely harvest and obtaining good grain
quality. A study was conducted in the mechanized rain fed schemes in
Gedarif State eastern Sudan to evaluate the performance of different combine
harvester makes, to quantify harvesting losses and to estimate the value of the
losses for direct harvesting of sorghum. Three combine harvester makes were
assessed, namely; New Holland, Claas and Massey Ferguson. The data was
collected from 46 combine harvesters during three harvesting seasons (2014,
2015and 2016). The exact number of each combine harvester make was 21, 9
and 16 for New Holland, Claas and Massey Ferguson, respectively. The
collected data included machine parameters, harvesting losses and economic
data. Results showed that the average forward speed, work rate, field
efficiency and fuel consumption, was 5.1 km/hr, 2.2 ha/hr, 86% and 7.4 l/ha,
respectively. The three harvesters produced similar seed quality in terms of
sound seeds, cracked seeds and impurities. The pre-harvest loss was
significantly (P ≤ 0.01) the highest among the other loss types. Irrespective to
harvester make, the header loss was significantly (P ≤ 0.01) the highest
among machine loss types. No significant differences were noted between
combine harvester makes in threshing and machine losses. The total
harvesting, machine and collectable losses were 25.1 %, 10% and 19.4 %,
respectively. The average value of the pre-harvest loss, machine loss, total
loss and collectable loss was 432.4 SDG/ha, 304.4 SDG/ha, 736.8 SDG/ha
and 188.9 SDG/ha, respectively. In conclusion, the performance of the three
combine harvesters was technically satisfactory, the machine loss was