Abstract:
Weed control has been a major problem in agricultural production, their occurrence poses serious threat to crops as they compete with crops for nutrient, food and harbor pests that destroy crops. Grass has some economic importance; they are used in beautifying our environments (lawn). The weed control implements available are expensive for local farmers. Hence, there is need to provide an implement to control the growth of grass and keep them under subjection at an affordable price. A tractor mounted rotary slasher was developed and fabricated at Agricultural Engineering Department, FUTA, Ondo state, Nigeria. It was designed to cut grasses at the desired level. The cutting mechanism consists of the gearbox with blade powered from tractor PTO shaft. Performance evaluation was done on three different types of grasses at five different speeds. The moisture contents levels of the three types of grasses were 70.1% (elephant Grass), 60% (Bermuda grass) and 66.3% (Bonnie grass) at the wet bases. The mean cutting efficiency attained by the implement on elephant grass at 510, 600, 700, 850 and 1080 rpm are 40.9%, 52.0%, 59.4%, 71.3% and 87.2% respectively. The mean cutting efficiency of the implement on Bermuda grasses at 510, 600, 700, 850 and 1080 rpm are 44.5%, 52.6%, 61.9%, 70.9 % and 84.7%. The mean cutting efficiency of the implement on Bonnie grass at 510, 600, 700, 850 and 1080 rpm are 43.5%, 53%, 62.3%, 70.4% and 82.8% respectively. Mean cutting efficiency of the implement on the grass at 510, 600, 700, 850, and 1080 rpm are 52.2%, 55.9%, 60%, 70.3% and 86% respectively. The cutting depth and cutting width of the blade is 20 mm and 1000 mm respectively. The rotating speed of the blade has impact on the cutting efficiency and of the implement, at low blade rotating speed; the machine efficiency is low and ineffective. The result of mean cutting efficiency and efficiency of the implement shows that the implement is more effective and efficient at high cutting speed (1080 rpm).
