Abstract : The results of fuel consumption and production effectiveness for three types of alfalfa mowers have been shown: self-propelled mower and hay crusher Fortschritt E 302; oscillatory mower with classic cutting apparatus and rotary mower with two drums BRK 1650. The exploitation parameters for each mower were measured simultaneously (moving speed, fuel consumption). The measurements of fuel consumption for all three types of mowers have been done exclusively for mowing, and they have not included fuel consumption for other operations, such as flipping, halts, etc. The production effectiveness is determined by moving speed, swath width and coefficient of the used production working time. The shorted mowing period of the green mass, the greater production effectiveness. The production effectiveness of the tested mowers has been defined applying the chronometric method, i.e. measuring working time of the tested mowing apparatus at certain moving speeds. The aim of this study is to conduct the comparative analysis of various technical performances of the mowing machines, with regards to the fuel consumption and production effectiveness, and identify optimal parameter values for use of tested mowing machines. The comparative results for tests of all three mowing apparatus have shown significant difference at fuel consumption between the self-propelled mower ( 4.52 l/h ), and other two mowers (2.20 l/h for oscillatory mower and 3.32 l/h for rotary mower). The greatest production effectiveness was made by the self-propelled mower-hay crusher with average 1.78 ha/h, and 0.87 usage of coefficient of the used production working time. Oscillatory mower with classic cutting apparatus made the production effectiveness of only 0.72 ha/h on average, whereas the average production effectiveness for rotary mower with two drums was 1.00 ha/h. Coefficient of the used production working time of these two types of tested mowers was the same – 0.84. F test has shown existence of highly significant differences between the tested mowers. The self-propelled mower-hay crusher has consumed more fuel compared to the oscillatory mower with classic cutting apparatus and rotary mower with two drums. In this case, the self-propelled mower-hay crusher has shown greater values compared to other two types of the tested mowers. In comparison to the oscillatory mower, that value was 1.6 times higher. Even the rotary mower with two drums was a bit more superior compared to the oscillatory mower with the classic cutting apparatus.

fuel consumption, production effectiveness, mowing

Presentation: oral