Deposition of maize seeds as a function of the inclination of the pneumatic dosing mechanism

Abstract

Maize sowing is essential for agricultural production and food security. Technological advances, such as electric pneumatic feeders and integrated software were developed with a view to economic and environmental sustainability. However, there are limitations in the knowledge of the physical phenomena related to sowing, which can affect the efficiency and reliability of these technologies. In addition to the terrain's irregularity, the slope also deserves scientific investigation to verify disturbances in the maize sowing process. The objective was to evaluate the deposition of corn seeds in longitudinal and transverse slopes using a pneumatic doser. The experiment was made on a static seeding bench, simulating the different inclinations. The results showed that the longitudinal inclination did not influence the acceptable spacing of the seeds, but the transverse variations resulted in a higher incidence of undesirable spacing. The study shown that the sowing operation when performed under longitudinal inclination results in a decrease in the accuracy of corn seed deposition, which can be mitigated by level cultivation. Transversal slopes influenced the parameters of acceptable, double and gap spacing during sowing.