Energy consumption in cultivating and ploughing with traction improvement system and consideration of the rear furrow wheel-load in ploughing

• The wheel slip is a critical parameter for fuel consumption and field performance.
• The field performance and the slippage increases with working width of the plough.
• A traction improvement system in a plough reduces fuel consumption.
• The rear furrow wheel load increases with working width of conventional ploughing.
• On-land ploughing is a technical solution to reduce the risk of subsoil compaction.

Soil tillage in conventional tillage systems is one of the most energy consuming processes. The paper deals with the influence of working width of mouldboard ploughs (mounted: 2 × 3, 2 × 5 and semi-mounted: 2 × 7) at the working depth of 25 cm and T-trailed cultivator (3 bars; row spacing: 27 cm; 18 tines; tine spacing; 27 cm, working width: 500 cm) at the working depth of 15 and 25 cm on field capacity, fuel consumption, slip and specific energy consumption. The experiments were conducted on the arable fields at the experimental farm Gross Enzersdorf (Lower Austria) of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna. For measuring of the vehicle and wheel speed (parameters for slip calculation), the tractors (4-WD 59 kW for 2 × 3 reversible plough and 4-WD 160 kW for 2 × 5 and 2 × 7 reversible plough and cultivator) were equipped with a radar and wheel hub sensor. The fuel consumption was measured for each trial volumetrically. The results show, that the technical field performance increases with the working width of the plough: 0.5 ha/h for 2 × 3, 1.9 ha/h for 2 × 5 and 2.3 ha/h for 2 × 7. The fuel consumption for 2 × 3 and 2 × 5 mouldboard plough is on the same level (20.3 and 20.5 l/ha) and decreases to 14.9 l/ha for 2 × 7. The high fuel consumption of 20.5 l/ha with 2 × 5 is explained by the luxury engine power in the 2 × 5 mouldboard plough-tractor combination. The increase of the working depth from 15 cm to 25 cm for the cultivator rises the fuel consumption by 70% and the slip by 265%, whereas the specific fuel consumption is on the same level. The Traction Control system in ploughs reduces fuel consumption between 10.0 and 11.5%. With increasing working width of the plough the potential of subsoil compaction is increasing, because of risen load of the rear furrow wheel. On-land ploughing is one technical solution to prevent subsoil compaction.