Results of the study of damage to small seeds from the disk sowing apparatus

Introduction. Meeting the needs of livestock feed is associated with an increase in planting acreages and increase in yield of forage crops. To ensure their maximum productivity, it is necessary to perform a high quality dosing of the seed material during sowing. This is especially significant when providing small rates of seeding small-seeded crops. Due to the small size of the seed, it is very difficult to distribute them on the feeding area without damaging. Materials and Methods. The members of the Prof. Leshchankin Chair of Agricultural Machines of the National Research Mordovia State University developed a disk device for sowing small-seeded crops to ensure more uniform distribution of seed with minimum of damage. Results. The authors determined the values of the objective function and built the regression equation describing the process of damage of the sowing apparatus, depending on design options. Discussion and Conclusions. For reducing damage to seed of small-seeded crops from the developed disk sowing apparatus, it is necessary to use disks with the maximum possible number of cells and the angle of the seeds reflector should not exceed 15o.