Energy Consumption in Alfalfa Production: A Comparison Between Harvesting Systems

Abstract

The purpase of this study was to determine the amount of input-output energy used in different harvest systems in baled alfalfa hay production in Tekirdag province, Turkey. Data were collected from 176 alfalfa farms in 2019-2020. The simple random sampling method was used to determine survey volume. Harvesting systems consisting of different tool-machine combinations are used in alfalfa production. The capacities and features of the machines used are quite different from each other. In harvesting systems; baler type (rectangular/round), number and frequency of use of the conditioner rake were taken into account. Therefore, the studied population was divided into six groups based on different harvesting systems (H/1-6). In addition, according to the number of mowing (1,2,3,4,5,6); The energy consumption of the harvesting systems used was determined. While alfalfa production was taken into consideration in the first cutting process, the applications made after the cutting process were taken into account in the single mowing process. Results showed that the energy use efficiency, energy productivity and net energy varied according to the type of bale machine used and the number of conditioners. The total energy input and output in harvesting systems was highly variable. The highest share of input energy was recorded for diesel fuels-oil ( 38.77%) and N fertilizer ( 24.89%). The fuel energy of 3244.57 MJha(-1) was calculated in the H6 system for the highest amount of fuel used per unit area. Due to the increase in the number of use of conditioner equipment and the number of mowing, energy consumption has also increased. When mowing six times; 1248.57 MJha(-1) machine energy consumption was calculated in the harvesting system using rectangular baler, and 1751.07 MJha(-1) machine energy consumption in the harvesting system using round baler. The highest total energy input (first cutting) was 8179.41 MJha(-1), 8377.54 MJha(-1) in the systems using round baler (H5-H6). The lowest specific energy was calculated 2.94 MJkg(-1), 3.17 MJkg(-1) in the systems using rectangular baler (H3-H4).