Tractor Rotavator – An Overview and Advantages

The use of farm equipment does not only increase the value of production but also saves time and improves the quality of the harvest. The modern farm equipment is used everywhere in farming operations from cultivation, seedbed preparation and harvesting. Tilling the soil is one of the most important operations performed in agriculture for loosening the upper layer of soil, to make seedbed and mix fertilizer in the soil, removing the weeds and old crops residue. 

 

It is important to improve the soil structure before sowing seeds for healthy crops. With the help of different types of tillage equipment, the organic nutrients and other components of the soil are improved.

 

Ploughing the field using a mould-board plough is one of the most traditional ways of ploughing. Through the ploughing, the soil is deformed and pitched to the furrow end. However, the traditional method of the ploughing is not enough, as the upper layer is not modified in the desired structure, thus needed some additional operations like disking, harrowing and cultivation with the use of tractor cultivator, disc harrow etc. 

 

The steps are also known as primary and secondary tillage to give a final finish to the soil. Tractor Rotavator or Rotary Tiller is a very effective tool for tilling the soil beating all the limitations of traditional mould-board ploughs.

 

What are the Advantages of Using a Rotary Tiller or Rotavator?

 

Once the harvesting is done of the crop, sometimes it seems difficult to prepare a perfect seedbed for another crop in the thick soils. Due to the growth of deep cracks in the soil, the traditional tilling tools such as the mould-board plough, tractor cultivators and disc ploughs are not good enough to prepare the seedbed. Clod development and crop remains are other difficulties experienced using them. But the use of a Tractor Rotavator or Rotary Tiller helps overcome all these problems. These are a few advantages of using rotavator:

 

·         The rotating blades or rotors have increased weight and length that enables it to cut the soil much deeper than the mouldboard plough.

·         The rotors of a Rotary Tiller make an impact on the soil surface and toss the soil upward. The rotating action of the blades breaks the clods and soil can be pulverized easily.

·         The width of the rotors ensures a long-lasting effect and reduces the cost of tilling the soil per hectare.

·         Allows quick and smooth tilling of soil for different types of crops.

·         The use of rotary tillers improves the soil fertility as the fertilizers can be easily mixed.

·         Removes weeds and crop residues effectively and completely.

Benefits of Zero-tillage Seed Drills in Agriculture

Use of Zero tillage and no-till seed drills has a number of advantages as it eliminates soil erosion and offers improved budget of the production. There are some significant benefits of zero tillage and no-till farming in modern agricultural practices one of these is soil protection.

 

Zero-tillage seed drills have offered a solution to many problems in modern agriculture but the main aim to introduce it on a large scale was to fight soil erosion in some regions. Soil as in its natural state without human influence is much more resistant to water and wind erosion. Which is why ploughing is not always fruitful in many areas but its impact is opposite on the soil. The development of a no-till seed drill followed an adaptation of existing conventional tillage seeding equipment to the specific requirement of no-till.

 

Farmers nowadays use a number of farm equipment to improve the efficiency ad save time and money. The seed drill not only offers higher yield and better nutrient use efficiency but also saves the time and costs when in terms of the number of rounds are decreased. Additionally, the final result for a farmer is reliable crop production with better profits.

 

·         Offers improved economy of production

·         Increases organic content and the quality of the soil

·         Reduces labour costs of ploughing and planting seeds.

·         Reduces other costs related to assets, farm machinery and fuel lubricants

·         Improves water balance in the soil

·         Reduces soil erosion

·         Increases percentage of plant nutrients

·         Saves and improves the environment

 

In order to accomplish proper farm practices with soil protection, farmers need farm machinery like seed drills that are capable of matching their requirements. It is necessary to consider all the features and functions properly to see the effectiveness of a seed drill of any brand before choosing a suitable drill for the task. The efficiency of a seed drill can be checked by the biological and economic risks of its usage for farming in any area.

Ploughing and Its Advantages

A Plough is the primary tillage equipment, used to cut, break and turn the soil partially or entirely. Ploughing is an ancient practice that is done to break the upper layer of the soil and its clods, to make it suitable for sowing new plant seeds.

 

This ancient farm equipment has transformed farming ways in modern times as it got improved with modern technology. Earlier farmers used human-made iron-tipped, wood wedge-shaped equipment pulled by oxen to till the soil. Modern plough such as disc plough and mould-board plough are used as an attachment to the tractor and let a farmer to plough even larger fields in minimum time. It also works very efficiently to control weeds and bury previous crop residue.

 

Ploughing being one the primary and most important soil management practices is used for centuries to form a grained, structural and straight planting layer on the upper part of the soil. This simple yet effective farm practice is done to cut, refine, and upturn the soil and to make furrows and ridges with the use of disc plough and mould-board plough. The use of any type of plough is decided as per the depth and structure of the soil.

 

Advantages of Ploughing

 

• Improves air circulation inside the soil to enables the routes to respire with ease.
• The root can enter deeper into the soil so that it can hold the crop plants firmly.
• Ploughing increases the water-absorbing capability of the soil.
• A Plough digs up the weeds developing in the land and helps in the growth of microbes.
• Supports in growing worms and microbes.
• Dig up and bury the old crop weeds.
• Brings the nutrient-rich soil to the upper layer of the soil so that the crop can use those nutrients to grow well.

 

Different types of plough such as disc plough, mould-board plough, reversible mould-board plough is used in modern farming practices. The use of various types of plough in modern farming practices is making farming more profitable for farmers.

Plough – Overview, Types and Advantages

A plough is a farm implement used in agriculture for initial cultivation or tilling the soil and preparing it for sowing seeds by loosening and turning it. Ploughs were used to be drawn by animals like oxen and horses traditionally, but in recent times these are drawn by tractors. The procedure of loosening the soil for farming is known as ploughing. 

The key purpose of ploughing the soil is to turn over its upper layer, getting fresh nutrients to the upper surface, burying weeds and the remains of last crops same time to let them break down creating natural compost.

Types of Plough

Based on their need in the steps of creating a perfect seedbed, different types of plough are used in the process of ploughing the soil. These can also be divided into primary and secondary tilling tools. And a few can be used as primary as well as a secondary tool.

Disc Plough

A disc plough is compatible to work in all types of soil for the purposes of breaking, raising, turning and mixing it. This type of plough is mostly used in hard, dry and trashy land conditions and where scouring is a major problem and can be directly mounted to the tractors.

Mould-Board Plough

Using Moldboard plough provides soil pulverization and buries the weed seeds and residue completely. A Mould board plough turns soil completely to bring nutrients to the surface. The mould-board plough reduces the amount of time required in preparing a field significantly, as a consequence, allowing a farmer to work a larger piece of land in less time.

Rotary Plough or Rotavator

Also known as Rotary tiller in various parts of the world, a Rotary plough or Rotavator is compatible to work with different soil conditions and applications. Its rotating blades or rotors loosen and aerate the soil to ensure a perfectly levelled and finished seedbed. This piece of tillage equipment is quite popular as modern farm equipment among farmers.

Chisel Plough

Chisel Plough and subsoiler are used as deep tillage equipment to break up hardpan and packed soils.

Advantages of ploughing the Soil:

These are the advantages of ploughing the Soil:

• ·         Loosening of the soil improves its quality by exposing it to the sun and increasing air circulation.
• ·         The roots can enter deeper into the soil that allows it to hold the plant firmly.
• ·         Ploughing enhances the water preservation capacity of the soil.
• ·         Ploughing helps in uprooting the weeds growing in the field and supports the growth of microbes.

Farm Equipment to Make Farming More Easy and Efficient

From decades traditional methods are being used to perform agricultural activities. In a country like India where the majority of the population is depended on farming for a livelihood, a significant amount of energy is spent doing all agricultural practices. However, the production is no that great in numbers and it is necessary to improve it to use advanced methods in the agriculture sector.

Soil testing, perfect irrigation system, weather forecasting, data science can provide a good future to this industry. Additionally, modern agricultural machinery and equipment can effectively lead to good crop yield and increased profits for the farmers. A variety of implements are used in modern agriculture from the most basic implements like a sickle, spade, pickage, desi plough, patella and to other modern farm implements like mould-board plough, harrows, rotavator, cultivators, seed drill, combine harvester etc.

These various types of farm implements are designed to suit different operations in farming, few of them explained here.

Mould-Board Plough

Designed to work in all types of soil it breaks, mix and turn the soil. The part in a mould-board plough that breaks the soil is known as bottom or base and includes share, the landside, and the moldboard. The share works as the cutting edge of the moldboard plough.

Seed Drills:

Seed drills are used for placing seeds on the ground with the least disturbance in the soil and are often used for grain crops or grasses or forage.

Combine Harvester:

The modern combine harvester is versatile machinery that makes it easy for a farmer to harvest a variety of crops. A combine is able to perform all the operations of harvesting like reaping, threshing and winnowing into a single operation.

Cultivator

The key purpose of using a cultivator is to remove the weeds from cultivation. Cultivator aerates the soil in set patterns before seed planting in the soil, and it removes the weed after the crop has grown.

Rotary Tiller:

Rotary tiller also is known as the rotavator, rotary plough or rotary hoe is used to cut the soil deep through the rotating blades.

Balers:

This farm machinery is used to compress a cut and raked crop into compressed bales that are easy to handle, transport or store.

Modern farm machinery can help a farmer to meet the demands of the increasing population. For the growth of the economy of our country agriculture needs to prosper. And it will prosper only when we use advanced farming methods and equipment.

Combine Harvester - An Overview

 

The crops farmers grow in the fields, such as barley, wheat, and rye, are partly edible. The seeds at the top of each plant also known as grain are used to make products like cereal and bread, but the dry coatings of the chaff are not edible and have to be discarded, with their stalks.

 

Before modern machines were developed, farmers had to harvest crops by carrying out many laborious operations one after another. Initially, they had to cut down the plants with a cutting tool like a scythe. Then, they had to separate the eatable grain from the non-edible chaff by hitting the cut stalks—the operation known as threshing. Lastly, they had to clean any left-over debris left from the seeds to make it suitable to use in a mill. This was all the time-consuming process done by a lot of people.

 

Gratefully, the modern combine machine or the multi-crop harvesters do the entire job automatically. A farmer merely drives them in an entire field of crops and the combine machine cut, thresh and clean the grains all together themselves using wheels, rotating blades, sieves, and elevators. The grain assembles in a container inside the combine harvester and periodically emptied into wagons hauled by tractors that drive alongside. Whereas the dry coatings of the seeds and the stalks spurt from a large exit pipe at the back and fall behind onto the field. 

Modern harvester has made it easy the crucial job of harvesting to a great extent, adding to the efficiency of any farm business and providing greater profits farmers in India and worldwide.

Tillage Equipment & Machinery– An Overview and Uses

Tillage is the term that refers to modification of soil properties for crop production. Tillage equipment is tools used to manage soil before planting seeds.

 

We can say that the process of preparing of land before sowing seeds is called tillage. And in this process a farmer uses various farm equipment to modify the soil properties, these equipment are known as tillage equipment. Tillage is required to provide the plants natural nutrients for an ideal growth.

 

Nowadays farmers use various tilling methods and equipment like plough, mould-board plough, rotavator or rotary plough, disc harrow, seed drill, cultivator, planters etc. The use of such modern tillage equipment helps farmer reduce time and accomplish ploughing in largest lands in minimum time. Here we are going to discuss some of the modern agricultural machinery used in tillage for smooth operations.

 

Mould Board Plough

 

A mould-board plough is mostly or commonly used in heavy rain or canal irrigated areas where the weeds grow-up easily. The main purpose of using a mould-board plough is to invert and pulverize the soil completely by breaking the clods in soil. It also digs up the roots of weeds, crop residues and trash and buries them under the surface where they convert in organic compost.

 

Power Harrow

 

A Power harrow is used to break, turn, refine and level the soil all over the farming area to turn it into a perfect seedbed. A power harrow is a significant piece of agricultural machinery used in tillage which is capable of working in even the harshest and most solid grounds when it comes to preparing a perfect land for plantation.

 

Disc Seed Drill

 

This versatile farm machinery is used for spreading seeds and fertilizer in the fields. The disc seeds drill consists of multiple boxes to store seeds and fertilizer and is attached with tubes. The tubes are used to spread crop seeds directly into the soil with comparatively less disturbance in the soil.

 

Rotavator or Rotary Tiller

 

Rotavator also known as a rotary tiller or rotary plough is a piece of tillage equipment used for deep tillage. It turns, mixes and aerates the soil to increase its nutrients count, making it perfect for seeding and harvesting. A rotavator consists of an assembled set of rotating blades or rotors connected to the engines that break through the soil and turn it.

Ways to Modernize Agriculture in India

Farm Mechanization

 

Farm Mechanization enables farmers to make more and more land compatible for planting and contributing to increased yields. With the use of right farm machinery, a farmer can accomplish farming tasks in less time with high efficiency. For instance, in place of manually seeding, using a disc seed drill can reduce hard work and time while increasing efficiency. Using a tractor plough or mould-board plough helps the farmer to plough the fields by reducing the weeds at the same time.

 

A tractor is the most versatile farm machinery offers the power and traction to mechanize agricultural jobs, mostly tillage. Agricultural equipment can be pulled behind or mounted to a tractor, and if the implement is mechanized, a tractor can work as a source of power.

Tractors are most commonly used as a farming vehicle. A farm tractor is generally used for pushing or pulling agricultural machinery or tractor-trailers, for tilling or ploughing, planting, disking, harrowing, harvesting and other similar tasks. Planting, growing and harvesting any crop necessitates both a major amount of power and an appropriate range of farm equipment and tools.

Identifying soil for specific crop

It is important for a farmer to be aware of the fact that each crop needs a different soil and atmospheric conditions to grow; though, finding accurate soil conditions for a crop can be a tricky thing. Conducting a survey before planting in the agriculture fields can help a farmer.

 

Use of Smart Irrigation System

 

Crops need an accurate amount of water at the correct time for normal growth. Hence, it is essential to manage the irrigation system of the field in a proper way. It can be a challenging where farmers face a shortage of water and depend on rainwater, yet it is the priority for a farm. Modern smart irrigation systems help to save water, with accurate use in the fields and minimum waste of water.

 

Conclusion

 

A farmer can improve their efficiency and productivity by following these tips and get their hands on right farm equipment such as tractors, land levellers, rotary mulcher, fertilizer spreader, baler, Disc seed drill, mould-board plough, zero tillage etc. The time has come when, instead of depending on animals, the farmers should go for the use of mechanized farm equipment to produce great results with less manual power.