Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry, cilt.47, sa.6, ss.1025-1042, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
The disc angles, vertical loads, soil type, and residue conditions have a significant effect on the performance of a single disc-type no-till seeder furrow opener. Disc angles are divided into two as the disc and tilt angle, and they play an important role on parameters such as the furrow profile, residue distribution, the cross-sectional area of furrow and spoiled soil area on the furrow edges. In this research, which was conducted with a soil bin, 5 disc angles (0°, 5°, 10°, 15°, and 20°), 5 tilt angles (0°, 2.5°, 5°, 7.5°, and 10°), 3 vertical loads (50, 100, and 150 kg), and 3 different residue conditions (wheat, corn, and no-residue soil) were used. Better results were obtained for the furrow profile, distance of the dragged residue, and the amount of dragged and cut residue at a disc angle of 0°. In addition, a higher residue coverage rate of 63% was achieved with a disc angle of 0°. The dragging of wheat and corn residue increased as the disc angle increased; however, the effect of the tilt angle on residue dragging was the opposite of that of the disc angle. In addition, the cutting performance of the single disc opener was better for corn residue (64.5%) than wheat residue (35.3%). While the amount of residue cut at a disc angle of 0° was 60%, this value decreased to 40% when the disc angle was 20°. This shows that a wide disc angle is a significant disadvantage in terms of cutting the residue. Increasing the vertical load applied on the disc opener increased the furrow width, furrow cross-sectional area, spoiled soil area, distance of the dragged residue, dragged and buried residue, and depth of the buried residue. It was concluded that a vertical load of 50 kg was sufficient for a single disc furrow opener under the existing conditions. As the disc angle increased, significant increases occurred in the cross-sectional area of the furrow by 6 times and on the spoiled soil by 17 times, which is undesirable for no-till seeding. However, an increase in the tilt angle from 0° to 10° resulted in a reduction in the cross-sectional area and spoiled soil.