Tuesday, November 14, 2006
151-1

Automated Harvester Reduces Labor for Sampling Pastures.

J. Benton Naylor1, Robert L. Kallenbach1, Donald W. Harby2, and Danny J. England1. (1) University of Missouri, 4968 Rangeline Road, Columbia, MO 65201-8973, (2) Central Missouri State University, G009A - School of Technology, Warrensburg, MO 64093

Sampling pasture for dry matter availability is time-consuming and sometimes inaccurate. To ensure accuracy, proper sampling protocol requires harvesting multiple areas within a pasture. Unfortunately, there are no commercially available mechanical harvesters that can rapidly harvest multiple areas within a pasture. With this in mind, we developed a three-point, tractor mounted, flail type pasture harvester that can be used to for rapid harvesting of multiple strips in a given pasture. The harvester cuts forage and throws it into a hopper attached to series of four load cells. After weighing, the hopper dumps the forage on to the ground, where it can be sub-sampled for moisture content. The harvester also measures the distance of each strip cut. A controller (Compact Field Point 2100 programmable automation controller, National Instruments) controls weighing, digital input/outputs, and hardware counting devices. A tablet computer running a LabView 8.0 virtual instrument, developed by our lab, allows the harvester to be controlled from the tractor seat. All data recorded in the field can be downloaded into a spreadsheet. Compared with traditional sampling using hand quadrats or strips cut with other machines, we have improved the accuracy of sampling by approximately 70% and reduced labor needed for sampling by 50%.