Evaluating the performance characteristics of mouldboard plough using computer simulation

Authors: Mustafa Ucgul¹, Chris Saunders

Research Team: Agricultural Machinery Research and Design Centre, School of Engineering, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia

Funded By: GRDC project DAW00244

Project Title: Delivering enhanced agronomic strategies for improved crop performance on water repellent soils in Western Australia

Peer Review: Jack Desbiolles, UniSA

Key Words: mouldboard plough, sands, sandy soils

Key Messages

• Increasing operating speed from 5-15km/h decreases the depth of top soil burial significantly
• Increasing ploughing depth beyond 250mm does not have a significant effect on the depth of top soil burial
• The use of skimmers improves the amount of top burial below 100 mm depth
• Discrete element method (DEM) is a useful tool to evaluate the mechanics of topsoil burial by mouldboard ploughing