A LOW COST STRAW AND FORAGE CHOPPER

A flywheel-type, inclined axis chopper for small-area rice and livestock farmers, has been developed at IRRI Agricultural Engineering, The prototype is belt-driven by a 2.6kW engine and uses four angled blades rotating below a fixed counteredge. Manual feeding is facilitated by a convenient spout presenting the crop to the inclined blade housing and also suction created by the rotating blades . The distance between the rotating blades and the bottom of the housing determines the length of chops, set here for 25 cm. The unit would cost $200 without the engine. Tests with napier grass, corn stalks , and rice straw showed satisfactory performance within the acceptable clearance, speed and moisture content ranges of the material presented. Highest capacities were 1186, 1148 and 744kg/hr for napier grass, corn stalks and rice straw, respectively. Corn stalks required the highest power demand at 2.3kW engine would be adequate as power source. The chopper performance was comparable to higher cost commercial chippers in terms of capacity and specific energy.