Assessment of Wheat Harvesting Losses with Different Combines and Provide the Necessary Solutions in Ardabil Province

 Harvesting is one of the most difficult and important stages of crop production. In this regard, 49 combine harvesters including conventional combines JD 955, JD 1055, CLASS-S 68 and NEW Holland TC 5080 were investigated in wheat farms in 5 cities of Ardabil provinces, during 2018. The measured parameters were preharvesting yield losses  and the losses at different sections of combine harvester such as cutting unit, threshing and separation unit, and storage tank, and also MOG percentage. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the harvesters in terms of losses and field capacity at the level of 1%. The highest effective field capacity was for NEW Holland TC 5080 combine with 1.16 ha hr-1 where the lowest losses with 0.99 percent belonged to the same. Head grain losses in John Dear, CLASS-S 68 and NEW Holland TC 5080 combines were about 68.5, 65.2 and 90 percent, respectively. Cutting platform losses in John Dear, CLASS-S 68 Combine and NEW Holland TC 5080 were 1.41, 1.64 and 0.99 percent, respectively. Processing losses in John Dear and Class combines were 0.67% and 0.87%, respectively, where it was only 0.04% for New Holland 5080 TC. The highest total losses were 2.51 percent obtained for CLASS-S 68 combine with 0.78 ha hr-1 field capacity. Useful quality losses were 0.52, 1.03, and 1.14%, respectively, for New Holland 5080 TC, John Dear and Class combines, respectively. In overall, the natural preharvesting losses rate was 3.74% and the average total losses for all combine harvesters was 1.94%. According to the results, in general it is recommended to use JD955 and TC5080 combine harvesters due to their low losses, acceptable wheat grain purity percentage and suitable field capacity.