Stubble cultivation refers to agricultural work on loosening and mixing the topsoil to a depth of 5-15 cm to control weeds and their seeds, pests and their larvae, in order to retain moisture and increase fertility. Precedes chaffinch plowing. As a rule, the procedure is carried out immediately or during the harvest of cereals and other crops with special units.
Appointment
In the late USSR, when agricultural development reached its peak, stubble cultivation measures were commonplace and were used everywhere. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a technological operation was ruled out for many reasons (mainly economic). Meanwhile, the experience of subsequent decades has shown that this procedure is by no means superfluous in crop rotation.
Peeling prevents:
- Evaporation from the soil moisture layer, especially intensified after harvesting by leguminous combines.
- The spread of various pathogens (for example, ergot, powdery mildew, root rot, rust, etc.)
- The development of insect pests, including their eggs, pupae, larvae.
- The growth of the vegetative mass of perennials, the dispersal of weeds.
In the CIS countries, the land is mainly cultivated with special disk mechanisms - LDH 10/15/20 cultivators or similar aggregates.
Technology Disorders
In the middle zone , soil preparation is divided into three types of operations:
- preliminary;
- main;
- presowing.
In each of them, according to science, agrotechnical measures for peeling are mandatory both before the use of dump and resource-saving equipment. However, many enterprises, farmers and private traders ignore the stage in order to save fuel and / or working time, considering these works to be insignificant.
Farms where the procedure is ignored, subsequently face an increase in the number of pests, soil diseases, weed infestation. Additional funds are allocated to combat them, pesticides are used in large quantities. In addition, the main autumnal plowing due to the untreated turf or stubble is of the worst quality, the aggregates and mechanisms experience a significant load, as a result of which their resource is reduced. Especially important is peeling after harvesting cereals. If it is not carried out, the earth quickly dries up and becomes stiff, plowing such a field becomes a difficult task for the machine operator.
Moisture retention
The accumulation and retention of moisture due to agricultural activities is carried out in different ways. After peeling, the soil becomes loose with a large number of non-capillary large pores. Autumn rains fill them with water, which evaporates slightly.
Small capillaries penetrating the compacted soil, on the contrary, conduct moisture from saturated layers to drier ones. As a result, water either evaporates or goes deeper. During processing, the capillary system is destroyed, which prevents the drying of the earth.
In the weakened fields, moisture also accumulates as a result of steam distillation to the upper layers from the wetter lower horizons. Condensation occurs at the border of the untreated and loosened soil layers. Observations showed that after working in the field of cultivators in the ground, not only the necessary concentration of liquid is preserved, but also increases.
Weed effect
Although grain harvesting occurs rather early, by this time a number of early weeds, such as pikulnik, highlander, wild radish and others, have time to ripen. In the process of harvesting, their seeds showered over much larger areas than in the wild. In addition, 1/2 stems (cornflower, daisies, bedstalks) and perennial weeds (cyst, various types of wormwood) remain in the stubble. Particularly “harmful” are sow thistle and creeping wheat grass. The longer the field is not cultivated, the more weeds take root, clogging the soil.
Another point is due to the fact that the crumbled seeds of wild plants and cereals after harvest remain on the surface and do not germinate. If plowing is carried out without preliminary treatment, the seeds are buried in the ground and the next year they "delight" with friendly seedlings. Perennials do not lag behind, accumulating nutrients in the root system.
Stubble peeling, carried out in August / September, allows you to deepen the seeds to a shallow depth and at the same time cuts off the shoots of plants. Thanks to the persistent warm weather and intensified rainfall, the seeds germinate, and perennials restore the green mass, consuming stored nutrients and thereby weakening. Subsequent autumnal treatment destroys the seedlings and prevents the growth of weeds.
Dates
The effectiveness of post-harvest peeling directly depends on the timing. It is most advisable to carry out hulling work in the field following the combine. In this case, the stubble will be quite soft, not over-dried. The straw is pre-skirted and, if possible, taken away.
A positive effect is observed even if the treatment is carried out a few days after cleaning, but not later than one week. Statistics show that grain crops of spring crops show an increase in productivity by 2-3 centners per hectare. Delay in time reduces or eliminates the positive effect.
Fuel economy
In addition to the benefits from the point of view of agronomy, stubble peeling in the future will significantly save fuel in the process of autumn (main) tillage. Efficiency indicators reach 10-15% in comparison with the cost of fuels and lubricants, if you treat the chill without preliminary disking.
Fuel and lubricants saving is connected with the fact that peeling works prevent the loss of soil moisture, which in turn reduces the density of the arable layer. The resistance of the course of tillage units or plows is reduced by 20-35%, the total productivity as a result increases to 20%.
Stubble peeling technology
If earlier harrows were used for peeling, then today they are more and more replaced by disc aggregators (cultivators). Their advantage due to the use of spherical rotating disks is the lower resistance provided by soil and vegetation, as well as the ability to adjust the embedment depth depending on the design within 3-25 cm. The operating speed is 10-25 km / h.
When choosing the depth of peeling and the model of the aggregate, they are repelled from such parameters as the granulometric composition of the cultivated land, moisture content, type of stubble and the degree of clogging by forbs. Light soils are discarded to a shallower depth, heavy soils to a greater depth. For example, if annual weeds prevail on the plot, in the dry period, the seeding is carried out to a depth of 6-8 cm (so that there is enough moisture for seed germination), in the rainy season - 5-6 cm. In addition, the use of discs (unlike a harrow) allows you to cut at an angle the stems and roots of perennials, as a result of which a significant part of them die, and the rest is destroyed by winter plowing.
If the field is highly clogged with wheatgrass or other rhizome weed, use disc harrows with a smaller pitch. On stony soils, chisel cultivators with lancet paws are used.
Lushchilnik "LDG 10"
This model is widely used in the CIS. It is a simple-to-construct, low-cost, and easy-to-use disc design unit. The equipment is attached to any tractor, even low-power. A distinctive feature is the flexible configuration of the drives and the instant transfer from the transport position to the working one, which allows you to process fields with complex terrain, small plots of land, edges along the forest, bushes, and swamps.
LDH 10 consists of:
- frame based on pneumatic wheels;
- working sections;
- overlapping disk battery;
- rods mounted on carriages.
The carriages, in turn, include a beam with self-aligning wheels and a hydraulic cylinder with a tuning screw that allows you to set the working depth.