Types Farm Machinery

Types of farm machinery, Farm machinery refers to machines collectively used in carrying out farm activities. With the introduction of different types of machinery into farming operations formerly done with human effort are now carried out with mechanical appliances.

Farm Machinery: The Key to Efficient and Productive Farming

Farming is an essential aspect of our lives as it provides us with the food that we need to survive. However, as the world\’s population grows and the demand for food increases, it is becoming increasingly important for farmers to find ways to increase their productivity and efficiency. One of the best ways to achieve this is through the use of farm machinery. In this blog post, we will explore the different types of farm machinery, their uses, and the benefits they offer to farmers.

Tractors

Tractors are the backbone of most modern farms and are used for a variety of tasks such as plowing, cultivating, planting, harvesting, and more. They are typically powered by diesel engines and come in a range of sizes and capabilities, from smaller garden tractors to larger industrial-sized tractors. Tractors also come equipped with a range of attachments such as plows, cultivators, and harvesters, which can be easily changed out depending on the task at hand.

Combine Harvesters

Combine harvesters are large, self-propelled machines used for harvesting crops such as wheat, corn, and soybeans. They consist of a header, which cuts the crop, a threshing mechanism, which separates the grain from the straw, and a cleaning mechanism, which removes any debris from the grain. Combine harvesters are capable of harvesting crops at a much faster rate than traditional methods and can also reduce the amount of manual labor required.

Plows

Plows are essential for preparing the soil for planting crops. They are designed to turn over the soil and break up any clumps, which helps to improve the soil\’s fertility and aeration. Plows come in a range of sizes and styles, including moldboard plows, chisel plows, and disc plows, each designed for specific soil types and conditions.

Cultivators

Cultivators are used to prepare the soil for planting and to control weeds. They consist of a series of tines or discs that are attached to a frame and are drawn behind a tractor. Cultivators are used to loosen the soil, remove weeds, and prepare the soil for planting.

Balers

Balers are machines used to compress and package crops such as hay, straw, and cotton into compact bales. They come in two main types, round balers and square balers. Round balers are typically used for hay, while square balers are used for straw and cotton. Balers are an efficient way to store crops, as they reduce the amount of space required for storage and make it easier to transport the crops from the field to the barn or other storage facility.

Benefits of Farm Machinery

The use of farm machinery offers many benefits to farmers, including:

  1. Increased Productivity – Farm machinery allows farmers to complete tasks more quickly and efficiently, which can increase their overall productivity.
  2. Reduced Labor Costs – By using machinery to complete tasks that would otherwise require manual labor, farmers can save money on labor costs.
  3. Improved Crop Quality – The use of farm machinery can improve the quality of crops by allowing farmers to cultivate the soil more effectively and harvest crops at the optimal time.
  4. Enhanced Safety – Farm machinery is designed to make tasks safer and easier, which can help to reduce the risk of injury or other safety hazards.
  5. Increased Flexibility – With a range of different types of farm machinery available, farmers can choose the right equipment for the job, allowing them to be more flexible in their approach to farming.

In conclusion, farm machinery

common types of farm machinery

Common types of farm machinery include the tractor, bulldozer, tillage, machines, planters, lathes, sprayers, motor-saws, harvesters and others. 1. The Tractor This is a powerful motor-vehicle. It essentially consist of petrol or diesel engine, two small front wheels and two large rear wheels. The function of the tractor as a farm machinery is that it provides the power used for pulling and lifting agricultural implements such as the ploughs, harrows, drills, sprayers and other heavy equipment.

  1. Tractors
  2. Combine Harvesters
  3. Plows
  4. Cultivators
  5. Balers
  6. Sprayers
  7. Disc Harrows
  8. Rotary Tillers
  9. Mowers
  10. Loaders
  11. Spreaders
  12. Hay Rakes
  13. Bale Wrappers
  14. Irrigation Systems
  15. Skid Steers
  16. Backhoes
  17. Excavators
  18. Harvesting Machines
  19. Disc Mowers
  20. Silage Cutters
  21. Telehandlers
  22. Power Tedders
  23. Straw Blowers
  24. Forage Harvesters
  25. Sugarcane Harvesters.
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The bulldozer as a type of farm machinery

This is a powerful tractor that pushes broad rectangular blade in front.

The uses of the bulldozer are:

(a) Leveling of land.

(b) Shifting large quantities of earth.

(c) Uprooting large tree stumps, and (d) Removing obstacles such as large stones and logs.

Tillage farm machinery

Tillage means the working of soils or loosening of soils before seeds are planted.
The purpose of soil tillage is to provide:

(a) Suitable seed-bed for seed germination and emergence,

(b) Easy water infiltration, (c) Better soil aeration or air movement,

(d) Control of weeds, (e) Erosion control,

(f) To work organic matter into the soil, and

(g) Adverse environment for soil inhabiting pathogens and pests.

There are two types of tillage machinery. These are:
(a) Primary tillage machinery: This refers to the tillage implements that are first used to open or loosen the soil to preparing it to receive seeds. This initial opening of the soil is called primary tillage. The primary tillage implement are the ploughs.

(b)nary

Ploughs types of farm machinery

The ploughs are primary tillage implements which is a types of farm machinery that is used initially to break and turn the soil-over in the course preparing it for planting. Ploughs break soil into large clods lumps. The ploughs are of three types. These are the mouldboard plough, chisel plough, and the disc plough.

The mouldboard plough among other parts, has the Coulter and share for cutting and mouldboard for inverting the soil. Most importantly, the plough has discs or concave metal blades that cut into the and turn it over. The discs are mounted on frames called disc standards.

The standards connect the discs to the beam or holl and cylindrical part of the plough. The disc plough can better and is more adapted to Nigerian soils than the mouldboard plough. The ploughs are usually attached to be pulled by the tract Work animals such as bullocks can also be used to pull plough for land cultivation.

Typical Disc Plough DIAGRAM Figure 3.3.4: Animal Driven Moldboard Plough.

(B) Secondary tillage machinery:
This refers to tillage implements used to cultivate the soil after the ploughs have initially been used.

The purposes of secondary tillage include:
1. To break down the large soil clods obtained from primary tillage.
2. Kill weeds further ALSO READ WEED CONTROL METHODS
3. Incorporate manure or fertilizers into the soil, and
4. Produce suitable tilt or soil structure for seeds The secondary tillage machinery includes the harrows, ridgers, cultivators, rotavators and rollers.

(i) Harrows types of farm machinery
The harrows are secondary tillage implements used for breaking help to put the soil in good seed-bed condition for seed emergence. The use of harrows kills weeds not affected by the ploughs. The implement can also be used to cover seeds with soil after broadcast.
The harrows consist of dics, or pines that are fitted to a shaft. All the parts rotate as one unit. The implement is hitched or attached to the tractor during farm operation.

Different types of harrows are in existence. They include:
1. The disc harrow
2. Spike toothed harrow
3. Spring tine harrow and
4. Tandem disc harrow

(ii) Ridgers:
The ridger is an implement that is used to turn the soil in one direction after ploughing to form ridges.

Crops such as yam, cassava and potato can be sown thereafter. There are two major types of ridges.

These are the disc ridger and mouldboard ridger.
The two ridgers work in the same way. However, the disc ridger 1 is better for use soils. This is because the soil contains obstacles such as stumps, roots and stones.

At times the! soils are sticky and disc ridger can effectively work in such conditions without frequent breakdown. The disc ridger consists of opposed concave discs which actually make the ridges. The discs are fitted to mental frame called standard.
This is bolted to a bigger frame called beam. The ridger is attached to the tractor during field operation. The mouldboard ridger types of farm machinery has features common to the disc ridger.
It however has concave or convex blades used to turn the soil in order to form rid»es.

(iii) Cultivator types of farm machinery: The cultivator is a secondary tillage implement. It is attached to the tractor during field operation. It consists of several tines used to stir the soil and breakdown soil clods. The cultivator is also used for weed combing, and dragging out stones and tree roots from the soil. The implement can be used for weeding and incorporating fertilizers into the soil after broadcast.

(iv) Rotavator: This is also a secondary tillage implement that has set of rotating blades. It breaks up soil clods and farm thrashes are chopped up in the process for easy decomposition.

4. Other types of farm machinery
(a) Seed drills: These machines can be operated by tractor or by hand. They drop or plant seeds and in some cases, discharge fertilizer at the same time. Most seed drills plant crops in row. They are set up to plant seeds at appropriate rate and distance. Crops such as maize, rice, wheat, barley, rye. oat and beans can be planted using the drills.

(b) Planters: These types of farm machinery are machines designed to plant seeds. Some of them are built to plant one type of seed. Others can plant more than one type of crop. This is achieved by changing the plates.
The planter built to plant seeds in rows with enough detail between the stands is referred to as row planter. Some plant are able to plant seeds and distribute fertilizer at the same time The planters as  types of farm machinery can be mounted on a tractor or trailed.

(c) Lathes:
The lathe is a machine that is used for holding and turning wood or metal into different shapes. Today, there many different lathes used for all types of shaping of materials.
The kinds of lathes developed from the centre lathe capstan lathes, turrel lathes, cropping lathes, automatic lathes and special purpose- lathes. In the school workshop, operations are turning, facing, drilling, boring, parting, knurl! and sometimes screw cutting.

(d) Motor-saw or powered chain-saw:
This is a machine consists of a small petrol engine, steel blade and chain round the blade. The chain rotates during operation and is the cut edge of the machine. The motor-saw has two handles for handling and positioning during use.

The machine is becoming popular among small-scale farmers because:
(i) It is used in cutting down (felling) trees during farm preparation.

(ii) It is used in felling and cutting timber trees into logs.

(iii) Also used to split logs into planks.

(iv) It is used in trimming the big branches of trees. (

e) Harvesters:
These are machines designed for the harvesting of ripe and mature crops from the field. Common harvest machines are: (i) Combine harvester,
(ii) Forage harvesters.
(iii) Corn pickers
(iv) Balers,
(v) Cotton strippers-. and
(vi) Field mowers.

The combine harvester is commonly used in commercial farms for the harvesting of cereals such as rice, maize, wheat, barley As the name suggests, the combine cuts the standing crops, separates the seeds from the chaff, and collects the grains tank while tank while the crop residues are thrown Held.
These activities are completed in one operation. The forage harvesters are machines used in cutting forage crops (grasses and legumes) for making silage to be kept for feeding animals during the dry season.
The field mowers (weeders) are machines used to cut grasses for hay making.
They are also used for clearing farms lawns and parks. Most field mowers are designed in rows. Examples are the blade mower and the drum mower

(f) Sprayer:
This is a machine consisting of tank where chemical is stored pump, spray booms and nozzles. The sprayer is used for:

1. Applying herbicides, insecticides and fungicides.

2. Watering crops

3. Applying liquid fertilizers.

4. Applying hormones to increase fruit yield or prevent dropping of fruits. There are three types of sprayer. These are:

1. The simple knapsack sprayer:
This can take between nine and twenty-three litres of solution.
It is usually mounted and pegged to the back of the operator during field operation.

2. The tractor mounted sprayer:
This is attached to the tractor during field operation. The sprayer is operated by the power take-off or P.T.O. 3.

The knapsack engine operated:
This type is made of plastic tank for the liquid chemical and uses petrol as Its source power. more on farm power here. As in the simple knapsack, the operator i the spray boom to the crops or objects to be sprayed. Spraying with chemicals should not be done during bad weather. The chemicals left after spraying exercise must not be poured in places where they can contaminate vegetables, and drinking water Protective covers should be used by the operator during field operation. Sprayers should be washed, cleaned after use, and a safe place until when needed. DIAGRAM Figure 3.3.7: Knapsack Sprayer.

5. Accessory Tools These are tools which are useful for the effective utilization of farm machines.
They include:
(a) Pliers: This tool is like a pair of scissors. It is made with two handles having plastic coverings. The pliers holding things such as wires during electrical
(b) Screw drivers:
These are made of round rods which are beaten flat at the tips. The handles are either made of wooden I materials. The screw driver is used for tightening and re-tightening of screws,
it is also used for loosening screw. There is also the star-screw driver with multiple or star-like grooves.

(c) Nuts and bolts:
Nuts are small pieces of metal and screwed onto the end of a bolt. On the other hand, bolts are metal pins with heads. Nuts and bolts are together used for holding parts of machines together or in place.

(d) Spanners: The spanners are made of metal. Some have the two ends split into two teeth for holding nuts and bolts. the spanner is essentially used for:
( i) tightening and re-tightening of nuts and bolts: and
(ii) loosening nuts and bolts.

(e) Hammers:
The hammer consists of a thick small metal head and a wooden or metal handle. It is used for knocking in nail and also to beat metals into flat shapes.

(f) Allen key:
This is a tool that is used in tightening, re-tightening and loosening deep seated nuts or nuts that cannot be reached with the ordinary spanner or screw driver. read here simple farm tools

(g) Oil applicator or can:
This contains oil which is applied to engine parts with the help of its pointed tip. (h) Grease gun: This instrument is used to apply grease into engine parts.
It consists of the tank and a long pipe with which the \”tease is pumped into inner parts of engines.

STUDY QUESTIONS
1. (a) Briefly explain the meaning of farm mechanization
(b) Mention five advantages and disadvantages of farm mechanization in Nigeria.

2. Discuss five problems that may hinder farm mechanization in Nigeria.

3. (a) List the sources of farm power
(b) Mention one use for each of the farm power listed.

4. Mention the uses of the following farm machines: (a) Tractor (d) Cultivator (b) Bulldozer (e) Lathes (c) Ridger (f) Motor-saw

5. (a) Explain the term tillage machinery (b) List two primary and two secondary tillage machinery.

6. (a) Give reasons why secondary tillage is necessary. (b) Briefly explain the importance of the plough inform operation 7. Write short notes on the following: (i) Sprayers (v) Spanners (iii) Seed drills (vi) Alien key (Hi) Harvesters (vii) Pliers (iv) Screw drivers (viii) Nuts and bolts.

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