LAUSR

The power requirement of tillage implements is an important design consideration particularly for animal-drawn implements where the power is limited. The paper presents the possibility of reduction in the draught requirements of animal-drawn mouldboard plough by using enamel coating on the soil-engaged components such as the mouldboard, share and the landside. Trials were conducted to compare enamel-coated Maun Series single mouldboard plough (manufactured by Zimplow Limited, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) with similar uncoated plough, both animal-drawn, under comparable working conditions. Experiments were done at 25% and 32% d.b. soil moisture content on a red clay soil in Zimbabwe. The parameters measured in evaluating the draught performance of both ploughs were the tractive effort (pull), speed of ploughing, depth and width of ploughing, and soil conditions (i.e. soil moisture content, soil bulk density and soil penetration resistance). It was found that for similar working conditions the enamel coating reduced the specific draught by 20 to 26% depending upon soil moisture content.