Optimization of transport support for forage harvesters

Abstract

Abstract Silage is the main type of feed in the diet of cattle. Violation of the agrotechnical terms of laying silos for more than 4 days contributes to a decrease in the quality of grass feed. Therefore, when harvesting silage, it is necessary to form a harvesting and transport complex of technical means that would ensure the timely filling of storage. The forage harvester performs the most energy-intensive operations in the technological process of harvesting feed from grasses. Therefore, the efficiency of the entire technological process depends on the optimal ratio of the number of combines and the vehicles that serve them. To optimize the system “technological machine-vehicles”, it is important to apply the methods of the queuing theory, which takes into account the probabilistic downtime of forage harvesters. The use of this solution method in the formation of a harvesting and transport complex based on a statistical model allows us to ensure the flow of the technological process of delivering grass mass from the field in the storage during the acyclic movement of vehicles. Optimization according to the statistical model helps to reduce the cost of silage production by up to 5% due to a more rational amount of vehicle use.