An air-assisted mechanical hill-seeding device for foxtail millet (Setaria italica)

Published:16 April 2024
Abstract Views: 207
PDF: 209
HTML: 15
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Setaria italica (foxtail millet) plays an important role in human nutrition, animal feed, and agriculture. Precision seeding is difficult, making foxtail millet planting and industrialization difficult. We designed an air-assisted mechanical foxtail millet hole seeder with a duckbill hole-forming device to address suboptimal seeding effects. We examined the effects of the return spring wire diameter, seed-metering device vacuum pressure, and dibber wheel rotational speed on seeding performance using bench testing. The results show: i) Wire diameters of 1.4, 1.6, and 1.8 mm were tested for quality index compliance with a return spring with a 44-mm major diameter, 2-mm minor diameter, and 70-mm length. A 1.4 mm wire diameter was chosen due to reduced tearing; ii) the seed-metering device vacuum pressure and dibber wheel rotational speed affected the quality index. We optimized parameters using response surface methodology to maximize the qualification rate and minimize missing and double seeding. An inlet vacuum pressure of -7.8 kPa, dibber wheel speed of 75 r/min, and seeder forward speed of 1.69 m/s (6.08 km/h) were optimal. According to model predictions, these settings had 89.88% quality, 1.56% multiples, and 8.56% miss. Field tests showed that at a seeder forward speed of 1.67 m/s (6 km/h) and a metering device vacuum pressure of -7.8 kPa, the average seed spacing was 16.51 mm, the hole spacing coefficient of variation was 2.55%, the mean seeding quality index was 88.46%, and the seedling pass rate was 97.77%. Thus, the air-suction-assisted mechanical foxtail millet hole seeder meets standards and advances small-grain crop agricultural machinery.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC
Bian, Y., Ma, Y., Zhang, Z., 2007. Reciprocating feeder applied to precision seed-grain sowing machines. Transactions of the Chinese Society for Agricultural Machinery 23, 122-127.
Bu, L., Hu, G., Chen, C., Sugirbay, A., Chen, J., 2020. Experimental and simulation analysis of optimum picking patterns for robotic apple harvesting. Sci Hortic-amsterdam 261, 108937. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2019.108937
Chen, Y., Cheng, Y., Chen, J., Zheng, Z., Hu, C., Cao, J., 2021. Design and experiment of the buckwheat hill-drop planter hole forming device. Agriculture 11, 1085. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111085
Cui, Q., Qin, G., Wang, M., 2003. The analysis and comparison on several kinds of precision feed mechanism. Journal of Shanxi Agricultural University (Natural Science Edition) 23, 69-71.
Gu, F., Hu, Z., Wang, H., Ji, F., Tian, L., 2010. Design of a duck bill-roller peanut seeder and analysis of its trajectory. Chinese Agricultural Mechanization 4, 60-63.
Kang, S., Ni, X., Qi, Q., Li, S., Xu, G., 2020. Design and experiment of pneumatic cylinder precision seed-metering device for cotton. Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research 42, 136-141.
Li, N., Zhao, M., Liu, F., Liu, Y., Lv, B., Zhang, T., Dong, S., Chen, C., 2016. Experimental study on the performence of pheumatic precision metering device for foxtail millet seeds. Journal of China Agricultural University 21, 122-128.
Panning, J.W., Kocher, M.F., Smith, J.A., Kachman, S.D., 2000. Laboratory and field testing of seed spacing uniformity for sugarbeet planters. Applied Engineering in Agriculture 16, 7-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.4985
Parish, R.L., 1972. Development of a narrow-row, vertical-plate planter. T Asae 15, 636-0637. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.37974
Parish, R., Bracy, R., 2003. An attempt to improve uniformity of a Gaspardo precision seeder. HortTechnology 13, 100-103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTTECH.13.1.0100
Siemens, M.C., Gayler, R.R., 2016. Improving seed spacing uniformity of precision vegetable planters. Applied Engineering in Agriculture 32, 579-587. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13031/aea.32.11721
Singh, R.C., Singh, G., Saraswat, D.C., 2005. Optimisation of design and operational parameters of a pneumatic seed metering device for planting cottonseeds. Biosystems Engineering 92, 429-438. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2005.07.002
Wan, L., Wang, H., Che, G., 2019. Design and test of rice hill-drop seed metering device embedded with rotating air cavity. Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery 50, 74-84.
Xie, W., Liu, Y., 2018. Seeding performance of rape seeding device of socket-roller. Contemporary Farm Machinery, 67-69.
Yang, H., Zhao, D., 2007. Research present situation and tendency about performance examination way of foxtail millet precision seeder. Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research 2, 34-35.
Yang, Z., Zhang, Y., Wang, H., Yi, S., Guo, S., Ma, Y., 2020. Experimental study on seeding performance of the millet drill seed-metering device. Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research 42, 197-202, 213.
Zhang, X., Shan, L., Li, Z., Wang, L., Chai, Y., 2007. The production and distribution of minor crops in the Loess Plateau of China. Chinese Journal of Eco-Agriculture 15, 80-85.
Zhang, Y., Liu, F., Zhao, M., Lv, B., 2016. Small size Air-suction seed seedmeter suction hole cleaning device design and simulation. Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research 38, 23-27.
Zhang, Y., Zhang, W., Li, D., 2010. Design for precision metering device with center transmission. Transactions of the Chinese Society for Agricultural Machinery 41, 78-81+121.
Zhu, J., Liu, J., Fu, Y., Xi, Y., 2023. Design and experiment of a suction type millet precision seed meter. Journal of Hebei Agricultural University 46, 111-117.

How to Cite

Bu, L. (2024) “An air-assisted mechanical hill-seeding device for foxtail millet (<i>Setaria italica</i>)”, Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 55(2). doi: 10.4081/jae.2024.1578.

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.