The effect of moisture content on the performance of melkassa multicrop thresher in some cereal crops

Dessye Belay And Melkamu Fetene

Dessye

Authors Details :
Dessye Belay And Melkamu Fetene

Journal title : Bioprocess Engineering

Publisher : Science Publishing Group

Print ISSN : 2578-8698

Page Number : 1

Journal volume : 5

Journal issue : 1

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The threshing quality of the machine was affected by moisture content. This parameter was one of the main causes of production losses. In Ethiopia, this problem was highly observed in the farm area during threshing. Therefore, the main aim of this research was, to minimize production losses during threshing by reducing the effect of moisture content on the crop, to improve threshing capacity, threshing and cleaning efficiency, to reduces fuel consumption, and to minimize grain damage by the machine during threshing. The experiment was done at four-time replication in the moisture level of 14%, 18%, and 22% for three selected cereal crops (barley, wheat, and tef) with a completely randomized design (RCBD) and 4 replicates as-block giving 12 total experimental units. Crop moisture content, size of the grain, sphericity, angle of repose, density, thousand-grain mass and coefficient of friction as well as threshing capacity, threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, germination rate, fuel consumption, and grain breakages were the parameters used to evaluate the performance of the thresher. Threshing capacity, threshing and cleaning efficiency, and density of grains showed decreased, as moisture content of crops increased. The other parameters mentioned above were increased with moisture content. A combined mean analysis of variances on the performance of thresher was significant at (p 0.05). The recommended amount of moisture content in this study was 14% because the result obtained by 14% moisture level was preferable to other moisture levels. At 14% of moisture content, the threshing capacity was (208.750, 285.45 and 68.181) kg/hr, threshing, and cleaning efficiency (%) were (98.603, 99.330 and 99.49 and 97.101, 98.22 and 93.731 respectively). Percentage of germination rate was (94.25, 94.50, and 91.25) and the amount of fuel consumption was also (1.14, 1.72, 1.70) l/hr., for barley, wheat, and tef crops respectively.