Comparison between Two Strategies for the Collection of Wheat Residue after Mechanical Harvesting: Performance and Cost Analysis

Alessandro Suardi, Walter Stefanoni, Simone Bergonzoli, Francesco Latterini, Nils Jonsson and Luigi Pari
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Alessandro Suardi: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)-Centro di Ricerca Ingegneria e Trasformazioni Agroalimentari, Via della Pascolare, 16, 00015 Monterotondo (RM), Italy
Walter Stefanoni: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)-Centro di Ricerca Ingegneria e Trasformazioni Agroalimentari, Via della Pascolare, 16, 00015 Monterotondo (RM), Italy
Simone Bergonzoli: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)-Centro di Ricerca Ingegneria e Trasformazioni Agroalimentari, Via Milano, 43, 24047 Treviglio (BG), Italy
Francesco Latterini: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)-Centro di Ricerca Ingegneria e Trasformazioni Agroalimentari, Via della Pascolare, 16, 00015 Monterotondo (RM), Italy
Nils Jonsson: Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), Ultunaallén 4, 756 51 Uppsala, Sweden
Luigi Pari: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)-Centro di Ricerca Ingegneria e Trasformazioni Agroalimentari, Via della Pascolare, 16, 00015 Monterotondo (RM), Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: The growing population worldwide will create the demand for higher cereal production, in order to meet the food need of both humans and animals in the future. Consequently, the quantity of crop by-products produced by cereal cropping will increase accordingly, providing a good opportunity for fostering the development of the sustainable supply chain of renewable solid fuels and natural feedstock for animal farming. The conventional machineries used in wheat harvesting do not guarantee the possibility to collect the chaff as additional residue to the straw. The present study investigated the possibility to equip a conventional combine with a specific device, already available on the market, in order to collect the chaff either separately (onto a trailer), or together with the straw (baled). The total residual biomass increased by 0.84 t·ha −1 and 0.80 t·ha −1 respectively, without negatively affecting the performance of the combine when the chaff was discharged on the swath. Farmers can benefit economically from the extra biomass collected, although a proper sizing of the machine chain is fundamental to avoid by-product losses and lower revenue.

Keywords: biomass; bioenergy; straw; combine harvester; chaff; by-product (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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