Stoyan Ishpekov, Nayden Naydenov, Rangel Zaykov
Agricultural University, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Ishpekov, S., Naydenov, N. & Zaykov, R. (2019). Indicators of a finger device for feeding sesame stems into harvesting machine. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 25(3), 589–594
At the Agricultural University – Plovdiv (Bulgaria) was developed a new device for feeding sesame stems in a harvesting machine. The aim of the study is to determine the main indicators of the device when working with non-dehiscent sesame varieties. The results indicate that the device achieves the minimum seed spillage on the soil surface of 2.5% when the kinematic coefficient of feed chains is 1.33 and the forward speed is 0.63 m/s. The increase of the forward speed from 0.63 m/s to 1.33 m/s leads to grow of device productivity from 1.59 to 3.35 ha/h for each harvested row. Simultaneously, the percentage of spilled seeds of Nevena variety increases with 70%, although the kinematic coefficient remains constant. The device causes 3.4 times less seed spillage than the Wintersteiger spot harvester at harvesting sesame genotype 23 with a seed moisture content of 8.5% and equal kinematic coefficients and forward speeds.