Paper Contents
Abstract
The labour-intensive nature of spreading solid manure manually is a time-consuming and costly process. It also leads to uneven distribution of manure and environmental concern due to ammonia volatilization and odour emissions, thus, there is need to make available an equipment to be used to inject solid manure to address these challenges. A solid manure injector was developed to place solid manure uniformly beneath the soil surface and completely covering the manure to reduce ammonia volatilization and odour emissions. The machine consists of the main frame, hopper, pulverizer, conveyor, furrow opener, and furrow coverer. The drive shaft directly on the wheel controls the pulverizer shaft and conveyor shaft via a chain and sprocket mechanism. The speed at which the pulverizer and conveyor operates are synchronized with the speed at the wheels. The Solid manure injector was calibrated in the laboratory by rotating the wheels at 28, 54 and 70 rpm respectively while regulating the rate of delivery with the help of an opening at the bottom of the hopper at varying feed gate openings of 6 cm, 12 cm and 18 cm. The machine was tested for three different moisture levels: 13%, 21% and 31% respectively. Laboratory tests indicate a highest discharge rate of 470.98 kgh at 70 rpm, 18 cm feed gate opening and 13% moisture content. Further analysis indicated that all the main factors and their interactions significantly influenced discharge rate.
Copyright
Copyright © 2024 Temitope Osadare. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
