Energy demand in soybean seeding on maize straw intercropped with forage

Abstract

The sustainability of no-tillage system is fully linked to the soil use and management, in order to use technologies that promote the accumulation of dry vegetation in the soil, but it may affect the performance of agricultural machinery. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate in soybean seeding the operational performance of tractor-seeder on maize straws intercropped with Urochloas in different treatments. The study was conducted in a randomized block design in factorial scheme 2 x 4 + 1, with four replications, formed by two intercropped forage species and five cropping systems. The dry maize straw, Urochloas dry mass and total straw dry mass were determined in treatments to verify the operational performance of the machines. The results showed that the amount of straw produced by maize and Urochloas interferes with the slippage of the tractor’s front wheels, i.e., areas with higher amount of straw promotes lower adherence of the wheel. Energy demand was not affected by amount of straw produced by the treatments, as well as fuel consumption and operational field capacity.