The Effect of Grain Moisture Content and Forward Speed on Grain Losses of Three Varieties of Chickpea in Mechanical Harvesting using Feeder and Cutter Mechanism

Chickpeas are grown in the Mediterranean, western Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Australia. Chickpeas are more challenging to harvest than cereals. The grain is more fragile and the crop pods closer to the ground, making pickup more difficult. In this study, the effect of grain moisture content at three level of 14, 11 and 8% on wet basis and forward speed at three level of 1.5, 3 and 4.5 km h-1were studied on three variety of chickpea produced commercially in Iran, Arman, Hashem and Flip 95-233C using feeder and cutter mechanism. Increasing forward speed from 1.5 to 4.5 km h-1 and decreasing grain moisture content from 14 to 8% increases grain losses at studied chickpea varieties. The maximum and minimum values of grain losses were 117.85 and 65.53 kg ha-1 for ʹʹFlip 95- 233Cʹʹ, 106.8 and 60.3 kg ha-1 for ʹʹHashemʹʹ and 82.1 and 60.7 kg ha-1 for ʹʹArmanʹʹ variety. The lowest and highest value of grain losses at all levels of forward speed was associated to Arman and Hashem varieties respectively.