Performance Evaluation of Power Operated Chaff Cutter for Selected Fodder Crops

The study was conducted to evaluate the performance of power operated chaff cutter for three types of fodder crops, viz., jowar, maize, and sorghum, under load and no-load conditions during kharif (July to October, 2022) at Farm Machinery Testing Centre (FMTC), University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka (16.2051°N,77.3303°E). The hardness of the blade was recorded to be 54 HRC, and the rate of wear of blades on a mass basis and a dimensional basis was recorded as 0.013% - 0.026% and 0.028% - 0.047% per hour, respectively. The power consumption of the chaff cutter at no load was recorded as 0.42 kWh. Similarly, the quantity of cut fodder received was measured as 621 - 623 kg h-1 and 1710 - 1816 kg h-1 for dry and wet fodder, respectively. The maximum specific energy consumption was recorded as 1123.21 - 2396.0 kg kWh-1 in dry and wet fodder, respectively. The quality of cut ranged from 0.38 - 0.42 and 0.41 - 0.43 in dry and wet fodder, respectively. The performance index of chaff cutters was recorded as 471.37 and 1006.34 for dry and wet fodder, respectively. The maximum efficiency was recorded as 96.62 - 97.87% and 97.50 - 98.10% for dry and wet fodder, respectively. The power-operated chaff cutter was operated for a long-run test (23.00 h) for cutting jowar (dry), maize, and sugarcane crops in both wet and dry conditions was done. No breakdown in the cutter head, feeding mechanism, transmission systems, body of the chaff cutter was noticed.