Abstract:
Spading machines are agricultural machines designed for loosening and breaking up
the soil. . The machine is made up of several spade shovels that are connected to a
crankshaft. Spading machines are hitched to a tractor using the standard three point
linkage and P.T.O driven. Spading machines incorporate residues, straw, compost,
green manure etc during the tilling operation. This enhances the soil fertility, porosity
etc. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential of the tractor operated
spading machine and the specific objective of the proposed study is to evaluate the
performance of tractor operated spading machine for the soil typical in Kerala. This
study aims at evaluating the effect of varying soil conditions and operational
conditions such as depth of operation and forward speed of the tractor operated
spading machine on its performance with reference to parameters such as soil bulk
density, soil strength (cone index), pulverization index (MMD), wheel slip, field
capacity, fuel consumption and draft. A comparative analysis between the
performance of rotavator and spading machine was also done as a part of this study.
The travel speed and depth of operation were taken as the independent parameters
and their effects on the variables such as soil bulk density, soil strength, pulverization
index, field capacity, fuel consumption, wheel slip and draft were studied.
