Abstract
A fully automated system for harvesting and handling mature buriey tobacco has been developed. This article identifies the operations essential to this harvesting concept and describes the development of the mechanisms by which they were accomplished. The system detaches, inverts and places mature plants into portable holders for air curing under waterproof covering without requiring any manual handling of the crop. Manual labor currently required to harvest buriey tobacco would be reduced by 80-85% and the system would eliminate the drudgery associated with manual handling. The harvesting system has an approximate capacity of 1.4 to 2.0 ha/day (3.5 to 5.0 ac/day) and is operated by two workers.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1990
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.31434
Funding Information
This investigation was conducted in connection with a project of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station and was funded in part by a grant from Philip Morris, USA.
Related Content
This document is published with the approval of the Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station as Paper No. 89-2-84.
Repository Citation
Wells, Larry G.; Day, George B. V; and Smith, Timothy D., "Automated Harvesting of Burley Tobacco I. System Development" (1990). Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications. 179.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/bae_facpub/179
Included in
Agriculture Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Transactions of the ASAE, v. 33, issue 4, p. 1033-1037.
© 1990 American Society of Agricultural Engineers
The copyright holder has granted the permission for posting the article here.