Preparing seedbed operations in clay soils is quite difficult. As moisture content increases in these soils, the soil attains a plastic consistency, adheres to tillage implements, and, when it dries out, large clods form during tillage. Furthermore, problems with seed germination occur in clay soils with poor drainage. This study aimed to design and manufacture a sowing machine that prepares seedbeds on ridges in clay soils. This machine consists of a lister, a rotary cultivator, and a pneumatic sowing unit. A ridge was created using the lister to eliminate seed germination problems. Due to the clayey nature of the soil, only the ridge was tilled with a rotary cultivator to a width of 20 cm and a depth of 10 cm to facilitate soil fragmentation. Soybean (Glycine max.) cultivation was carried out. Field trials were conducted on plowed plots (plowed in autumn) and on unplowed plots, and the system was compared with the conventional sowing method (plowing + disc harrowing + sowing machine). The field emergence rate was 73.04% in the plots tilled in autumn with the prototype machine and 76.05% in the plots without tillage when tilled with the prototype machine. This value remained at 31.43% under conventional tillage. Fuel consumption in conventional sowing was 2.51 times higher than sowing with the prototype machine. In addition, the prototype machine saved 69.56% of compared to conventional tillage.
Karaköse et al. (Tue,) studied this question.