Evaluating the effect of the cushion box and closed let-down ladder systems on corn breakage with different drop heights and grain moisture contents

Corn is one of the most important agricultural products that play an important role in human nutrition. Corn kernels are highly sensitive to mechanical damage due to their large size and mass. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the cushion box and closed let-down ladder usage in minimizing mechanical damage to corn seed during free fall. Corn seeds from a single lot of cultivars KSC 705 were loaded into bins in three methods (free fall (no obstacle), with cushion box, and with closed let-down ladder) at five levels of grain moistures (10, 15, 20, 25, and 30%), and three fall heights (2, 4 and 6 m) and evaluated for percentage of seed breakage. The results showed that the seed fall methods significantly affected the amount of damage to the seeds. The minimum and maximum grain breakage were 3.97% and 8.85%, created with a closed let-down ladder and pipe without a system (free fall). The average seed breakage was 6.38% which was observed using a cushioned box. The analysis of variance showed that all three factors, drop method, drop height, and moisture content, and their interactions had significant effects (P <0.01) on the percentage breakage of corn seeds.