Mowing technology
The mowing describes the technical devices for mowing of grass, grain or other fruits are needed, where the roots remain as crop residue on the surface and possibly re-cast. In technical terms, this activity is also referred to as "the mowing".
history
In the early days, humans used harvest knives , sickles and scythe as cutting and harvesting tools. With the advent of industrialization, the cutter bar was first developed, which has been replaced by rotating mowers since the 1970s, especially in grassland management.
Mowing method
- With scissors cutting, the clippings are pressed by the cutting edge of a knife or blade against a counter blade and cut off. The advantage of this technique lies in the clean cutting edge on the remaining plant, which leads to a growth advantage over other mowing methods. Typical representatives of this cutting technique are the
-
Bar mower with
- Finger mower or
- Double cutter bar and that
- Reel mower .
-
Bar mower with
- With the free cut , a counter blade is dispensed with and the crop is cut due to the rotational speed of a rotating knife and the inertia of the plant. The scythe also falls into this category. The disadvantage of this technology is that if the cutting edge is not sharp, the crop will be cut off and the cutting edge will not be clean. However, high area outputs are possible with this cutting technique.
- Rotary mowers ,
- Flail mowers ,
- Rotary mower and
- Brushcutters work according to this principle.
Working widths
While the cutter bar usually has a working width of up to 2 m in the grassland area, it can be up to 15 m wide in the cutting units of combine harvesters . Rotary mowers achieve working widths of 4 m as a single machine in grassland management. In the combination of several mowers on a carrier vehicle over 10 m.
Power requirement
The power requirement of bar mowers is around 2 kW per meter of working width, whereas for rotating mowers the requirement for rotary mowers is around 7 kW and for flail mowers around 22 kW per meter of working width.
Effects of different mowing techniques on the animal world
Due to the way the rotating mowers work with free cutting, their effects on the animal world are significantly greater than with cutting techniques. The effective range of a disc mower is already more than twice as large as that of a bar mower and that of a drum mower is even five times higher. Tests have shown that more animals were injured or killed with free cutting than with cutting mowing. With regard to the influence of mowing devices on the animal world, the following increase in damage to the animal world was shown: Hand motorized beam mowers -> tractor beam mowers -> scythes -> drum / disc mowers -> mowers with conditioners -> mulchers . Downstream conditioners, which crease or squeeze the crop immediately after cutting in order to accelerate the drying process, significantly increased the risk of injury to the meadow animals in all cases.
The following advantages are also given for cutting tools:
- Faster regeneration of the plants
- No feed contamination in cattle farming
- Simple cut, therefore no losses due to double cuts
- Reduced risk of accidents (no foreign bodies thrown away)
- Reduced risk to insects , amphibians and wild animals
- Low energy consumption (as there are no peak loads on the motor and can be operated at a lower rated speed if necessary)
literature
- Agriculture: Volume 3 - Agricultural engineering and construction . BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich, ISBN 3-405-14349-7
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dennis van de Poel & Andreas Zehm: The effect of mowing on the fauna of the meadows - A literature review for nature conservation. In: ANLiegen Natur . No. 36 (2), 2014, pp. 36-51 online