Energy Inputs for Conservation and Conventional Primary Tillage Implements in a Clay Loam Soil.

An instrumented research tractor was used to determine the energy inputs for eight primary tillage implements applied to a Brookston clay loam soil in southwestern Ontario, Canada. The energy measurements included draft, fuel consumption (L ha⁻¹), and specific fuel consumption (L GJ⁻¹), which is an indicator of tractor-implement match. Implements included moldboard plow, chisel plow, disk ripper, combination chisel sweep, disk harrow, fluted coulter, deep zone till, and shallow zone till. The study was conducted over four years (2002-2005) using a randomized complete block design with fall primary tillage occurring in the wheat phase of a corn-soybean-winter wheat rotation. The disk harrow and fluted coulter were not effective primary tillage implements due to penetration of only 50 to 60 mm into the clay loam soil. Operating depth for the other six implements was 170 to 190 mm, except for deep zone till which was designed to operate at about 340 mm depth to loosen compacted subsoil and break up plow pans. The mean drafts for these implements ranged from 16.3 kN m⁻¹ for the deep zone till to 5.0 kN m⁻¹ for the shallow zone till. Fuel consumption ranged from 21.6 L ha⁻¹ for the moldboard plow to 6.5 L ha⁻¹ for the shallow zone till. Specific fuel consumption ranged from 110 L GJ⁻¹ for the deep zone till to 204 L GJ⁻¹ for the disk harrow. The large ranges in implement draft, fuel consumption, and tractor efficiency indicate that substantial energy savings can be readily obtained by selecting energy-efficient tillage implements and by proper matching of the tractor size and operating parameters to the tillage implement.