Effect of Disc and Tilt Angles of Disc Plough on Tractor Performance under Clay Soil

Abstract

The three- bottom, fully mounted disc plough (DP) is widely used as a primary tillage implement in the irrigated sector in Middle and Northern Sudan. In the DP, two angles (tilt and disc) affect tractor performance and ploughing quality. This research was conducted at the Demonstration Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum to study the effect of two disc angles (43o and 45o) and three tilt angles (15 o, 20o and 25o) on tractor effective field capacity, rear wheel slippage, fuel consumption, ploughing depth and width of cut. Soil of experimental area was clay loam. The experiment was arranged in a split-plot design and replicated three times. Disc angles were assigned to the main plots whereas tilt angles were distributed in the subplots. Tractor forward speed was maintained at the most commonly used ploughing speed (9 km/h). Effective field capacity was increased by 16% with the decrease of disc angle, while the width of cut, was decreased by 15%. The decrease of tilt angle improved penetration of discs into the soil, the highest ploughing depth was recorded for the tilt angle o15 with the disc angle o45, which consequently led to an increase of both rear wheel slippage and fuel consumption rate.