Field evaluation of slot openers for minimum tillage (part 3)- Dried soil cover on the slot -

• Main Author: Isara Chaorakam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Maejo University 2009-03-01
• Series: Maejo International Journal of Science and Technology
• Subjects: rice; slot opener; residue handling; minimum tillage; crop residue; dried soil
• Online Access: http://www.mijst.mju.ac.th/vol2/s95-105.pdf

The direction and feature of slot opener can produce different amount of dried soil cover on the slot. Four different slot openers, namely of a bubble coulter, a V-shaped slot opener, a VRA-slot opener and a VRB-slot opener were tested in the rice field which was covered with chopped arable weed. The direction of these four slot openers was set following the direction of travel. Several field trials of all slot openers were carried out to validate their drill performance on sandy loam soil with four different levels of residual density (0, 2, 4, 6 t/ha) and three levels of soil moisture content (31.67, 46.34, 49.07 %). Significant interactions among the major factors were discussed for each slot opener. High amounts of dried soil cover on the slot were discerned in the case of a VRA-slot opener, especially under lower levels of soil moisture content. Some amount of dried soil cover on the slots was observed for the VRB-slot opener. Generally, dried soil cover on the slot tended to decrease with the increase of residual density after the operation of the bubble coulter and the V-shaped slot opener, due partly to hairpinned residue in their slots.