AVALIAÇÃO DE PERDAS NA COLHEITA MECANIZADA DO MILHO EM TRÊS COLHEDORAS EM FUNÇÃO DE DIFERENTES VELOCIDADES E MESMA ROTAÇÃO DO CILINDRO TRILHADOR

Abstract

Corn harvesting is one of the most important stages of agricultural activity, and if not monitored, the losses that occur in this phase can compromise productivity and consequently the profitability of the production process. Therefore, the objective of this work was to quantify the losses in the mechanized harvesting of the crop, which occurred at different speeds, but at the same threshing cylinder rotation (400 RPM) of the John Deere harvesters, being three models (one in the S680 model year 2016, and two in the S780 model year 2019 and 2021). Being quantified the impurity variables,whole grains,grains undeformed, broken grains, and losses were weighed and expressed in kg ha-1. The present work was developed in an area of Fazenda California in the municipality of Campo Alegre de Goiás, in the State of Goiás (GO). The maize cultivars used were: Agroeste 1868 and Dekalb 255 PRO 4, both of early cycle, being cultivated in the summer period. The losses on the platform did not have such a large variation in relation to the harvesting speed. Therefore, according to the results obtained, to minimize the loss of corn grains during harvest, the most recommended speed is 4.5 to 5.0 km h-1, that is, it is recommended to harvest at a speed lower than 5,0 km h-1. Losses increase with increasing displacement speed. And there was no significant difference between the sizes of the areas used for data collection.