Avaliação do desempenho operacional e econômico de uma colhedora automotriz de café

Abstract

The mechanized harvesting of the coffee plantations in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, became an increasingly adopted process due to the innumerable benefits that this type of management gives to the producer, such as the production maximization and the costs reduction mainly with the manpower. The objective of this study was to evaluate the operational and economical performances of a coffee automotive harvester recently launched on the Brazilian coffee harvesters market. The experiment was conducted in a farm located in the municipality of Boa Esperança, south of Minas Gerais. The area was composed of 525 plants of the cultivar Topázio with 15 years of age. The layout of the plants in the area was with a distance between plants of 0.70 m and of 3.5 m between the lines. The experimental design was a 3x3 factorial, represented by T1 (v1 = 600 mh -1 , v2 = 800 mh -1 , v3 = 1000 mh -1 ) and T2 (F1 = 15 Hz, F2 = 16.7 Hz and F3 = 18.3 Hz) treatments. Each variation of the T2 treatment was composed of 4 plots of 10 m each (repetition) with 5 m border between the plots. The volume of coffee fruits harvested and the loss of coffee fruits during harvest were directly influenced by the increase of the vibration frequency in the stores with the significant difference between the frequencies of vibration used. The bigger coffee fruit removing efficiency was with the greatest displacement speed of the harvester. However, with the results obtained a uniformity in the efficiency of the melt was observed in the lower speed of displacement of the harvester, that is, 600 m.h -1 . The defoliation caused during the harvesting process showed variations, increasing gradually with increasing frequency in the vibratory rods.