Sweetcorn grain production technology

Abstract

The presented research results concern the amount of work and energy incurred in the grain production technology and the aspect of the quality of separating grain from the cob cores. The dynamic increase in the area of sweet corn cultivation for processing purposes (canning, freezing) affects the fact that manual harvesting is increasingly being replaced by combine harvesting. It ensures higher and energy-efficient work efficiency, as well as harvesting at the optimal stage of ripeness, which is particularly important in the case of sweet corn. Sweet corn cobs of the Candle variety were harvested with a Bourgoin combine harvester at the stage of late-milk maturity, and then subjected to processing consisting in de-shirting and cutting off the grain The quality requirements of the separated grain are, m.in: smooth surface and equal length of the cut grains, no mechanical damage and low losses of weight and nutrients. The quality of the separated (cut) grain was analyzed by measuring the length and surface condition of the cut grain. Grain with weight losses was classified as grain of inferior quality. The grains were cut off on a cutter for variables ranging from 167.5 to 301.2 rad/s angular velocity of the knife head and constant linear speed of the cob feeder 0.31 m/s. For comparison purposes, grain is divided into three classes. The workload incurred for the combine cob harvesting was the highest for post-harvest processing of cobs - 31% and soil cultivation - 27%, and energy expenditures for soil cultivation - 341 kWh/ha and for combine harvesting - 285 kWh/ha. The length of the cut grain increased by 26% in class I, and decreased by 14% in class II and by 11% in class III. On the other hand, the share of grain of inferior quality decreased in class I by 5%, in class II by 7% and in class II by 3%.