OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF A MOTOR CULTIVATOR AS A FUNCTION OF DIFFERENT FUELS

Abstract

In family farming, the growth of mechanization is due to the optimization of the periodic operations and reduction of the physical effort of the producer. The objective of this work was to determine the operational performance of a MTD model GOLD motorcultivator, operating in four depths, two directions of rotation of the knives and three types of fuels, using a completely randomized design in a factorial scheme of 4x2x3, and the results submitted to the Tukey test. It was evaluated the operational and energy performance according to the evaluated parameters. It was observed that for the knives rotating in the reverse direction, there was a reduction in the speed and effective field capacity and increase of the skating and fuel consumption, whereas for the knives turning in the reverse direction the behavior was opposite. It was also observed that the equipment using common gasoline showed higher fuel consumption in most treatments. Thus, the use of the gasoline-ethanol blend provides lower operating costs per hectare.