Determination of the optimal value of the technical level of the potato harvesting unit

It is known that mechanized potato harvesting is a complex and time consuming agricultural technological process. The effectiveness of its functioning is influenced by a large number of factors. One of the significant factors is the technical condition of the potato harvesting unit. The article proposes a quantitative assessment of this factor by such an indicator as the “technical level”, which depends on the costs of maintaining the trouble free technical condition of the harvesting unit and the losses from downtime of the potato harvesting process due to malfunctions in the machine and tractor unit involved in harvesting. Using a widely known mathematical apparatus for solving optimization problems, the formula for determining the optimal value of the technical level of the potato harvesting unit is derived. Using statistical data of timing observations of the operation of the KPK-2-01 + MTZ-80 potato and harvesting unit for three harvesting seasons in the farms of the Irkutsk region, using correlation and regression analysis, power law functional relationships between the technical level and the economic indicators under consideration were revealed. According to the obtained formula, the optimum value of the technical level (Ut = 0.71) of the potato harvesting unit is calculated, which corresponds to the minimum costs to ensure the smooth functioning of the potato harvesting process in a mechanized way. The results of the studies can be useful in the analysis of the reliability of potato harvesting units of various configurations, as well as harvesting technical systems used in other agricultural technological processes.