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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2012

Cereal harvesting - strategies and costs under variable weather conditions

De Toro, Alfredo; Gunnarsson, Carina; Lundin, Gunnar; Jonsson, Nils

Abstract

The main findings obtained by simulation and valid for regions with similar climate and agricultural conditions to the studied region were that: (a) available combining time was highly dependent on grain moisture ceiling, which showed large annual variation, e.g. a moisture ceiling of 21% (w.b.) was related to a potential harvesting time of 65% and a standard deviation of 24% (n = 30 years); (b) in order to complete harvesting operations in most years, it was necessary to operate at a moisture ceiling of 22-24% (w.b.), however, the average moisture content of the harvested grain was much lower, about 17-18%; (c) overall harvesting costs were estimated at approx. (sic)140 ha(-1) for those systems performing relatively well, i.e. with a daily harvesting capacity of 4-5% of the cereal area and operating at a moisture ceiling of 22-24% (w.b.); and (d) the main sources of annual cost variation were firstly the timeliness costs and secondly the drying costs. (C) 2012 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Published in

Biosystems Engineering
2012, Volume: 111, number: 4, pages: 429-439
Publisher: ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

    SLU Authors

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Agricultural Science

    Publication Identifiers

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2012.01.010

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/45657