Seed Refinement in the Harvesting and Post-Harvesting Process

Abstract

Over recent years the quality of crop seeds in our country leaves much to be desired. To have seeds that meet the requirements of all-Union State Standard, it is necessary to reduce the level of grain injury in the process of grain crop production. When harvesting crop seeds, a rotary combine harvester thresher should be used. They allow getting a better bunker heap of chaff and grain than their drum alternative. It is acknowledged that combine harvester threshers with the rotary threshing-separating device breaks grains 2,20-13,41 times less. While doing that, the amount of whole grains increases by 2.53-4.11%. Laboratory germination of seeds selected from the grain heap by means of rotary combine harvester threshers is 1.7-4.0% higher than when harvesting with machines equipped with drum threshing and separating devices. Within the post harvesting procedures, the sequenced-flow method should be applied to the grain processing. The method eliminates the temporary storage of grain crop in asphalted yards. It is necessary to separate chaff from grain immediately after it is transported to the elevator. For winter wheat seeds, the recommended thousand grain weight should be 40-50 g. Such results can be reached if the air-flow velocity of the seed cleaning machines is at least 8 mps at the level of the second aspirating channel, while sorting sieve plates of the sieve boot have the 2.6 mm through at least. Following these recommendations will significantly reduce the injury of grain during harvesting and post-harvest processing, which will affect the quality of both commercial and crop seeds.