TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF MECHANIZED HARVESTING OF FORAGE TIFTON 85 (Cynodon spp.)
Agricultural fleet management, operating performance and operating costs.
The global forage trade is expanding due to the demand for forage to supply the feed of herds, which in Brazil alone, according to the latest IBGE survey in 2019, reached 214.7 million. The technical and economic evaluation of the mechanized sets used during the production cycle of these crops is an important tool for identifying bottlenecks and for the management and planning of mechanized operations. The present work has as objective to carry out the technical and economic evaluation of the mechanized operations of the harvest stage in a production area of the forage crop Tifton85, from a study of times and movements, and determination of the efficiencies and operational costs. The experiment will be conducted in four parts, in an agricultural production area located at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, in the municipality of Seropédica, RJ. Data will be collected in 4 different cuts in a field using the following machines: Tractor Massey ferguson 4275 (power source), Nogueira brand harvester, model SDN-210 (forage cut); a Nogueira brand rake, model haynog 300 (for spreading and raking the cut forage) and a Nogueira brand baler, model express- 4030 (baling the hay produced). From the survey of productive and unproductive times of mechanized operations, the following parameters of operational performance of mechanized sets will be determined. After the operational performance evaluation, an analysis will be carried out based on the fixed and variable costs of operations related to the harvesting of Tifton 85 (cutting, raking and baling). In general, it is expected with the results of this project to obtain data that allow for an efficient planning in terms of operational performance and costs for harvesting forages in the stages of cutting, raking and baling, especially for the condition of the FenoRio farm. Furthermore, the influence of harvesting in different cut numbers on the operational performance of the machines will be evaluated.