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Title: Effects of Slurry Injector Disk Shape on Reduction of Soil-Machine Resistance during Animal Effluent Application

Author
item KISHIMOTO, TADASHI - OBIHIRO UNIVERSITY
item TANI, MASAYUKI - OBIHIRO UNIVERSITY
item UMETSU, KAZUTAKA - OBIHIRO UNIVERSITY
item Way, Thomas - Tom

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/26/2007
Publication Date: 11/26/2007
Citation: Kishimoto, T., Tani, M., Umetsu, K., Way, T.R. 2007. Effects of Slurry Injector Disk Shape on Reduction of Soil-Machine Resistance during Animal Effluent Application [abstract]. 2007 Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture Conference.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Application of liquid manure to soil is commonly done by injecting the manure beneath the soil surface, to reduce emission of odors and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and to avoid the spreading of liquid manure on leaves of crop plants. This manure injection is often done using knife-like injectors that are drawn through the soil, but a disadvantage of these devices is the relatively large amount of energy needed for pulling the injectors through the soil. An important objective regarding liquid manure injectors is to reduce fuel consumption by minimizing the cutting resistance of the knife-like injectors and the disk coulters that are also used. An experiment was conducted at Obihiro University in Obihiro, Japan, using two types of injector disk, to determine the energy needed to pull the disks through a compacted loam soil. The pulling energy requirements of a gauge wheel associated with each disk were also determined. The average cone index of the soil for a depth range of 0 to 10 cm was 374 kPa. One disk was a solid disk and the other was a perforated disk, and both were 300 mm in diameter. The forward velocity of the tested devices was 0.17 m/s and the soil cutting depths of the disks were set at 4, 6, and 8 cm. The force required for pulling the perforated disk was 21% less than that of the solid disk. The pulling force of the gauge wheel for the perforated disk unit was 9.7% greater than that of the solid disk unit. The total pulling force, which was the soil-disk pulling force and the pulling force of the gauge wheel, for the perforated disk unit was 4.5% less than for the solid disk unit. Disk perforation was found to be effective in reducing the total pulling force.