Khurana, RohinishMoges, Smegnew2019-09-052019-09-052019http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810126548Integrated dairy farming and livestock production have been intensively increase in India. The main challenges are the un-availability and high cost of production of green fodder crops throughout the year. Cultivating legumes, however, provide a nutritious, palatable feed that will satisfy the growing demand for milk and other sources of animal protein, maintain the soil health and increase soil fertility. At present, sowing of small-seeded fodder crops like berseem and lucerne is being done manually. To save manpower, time and energy for fodder production, a machine for sowing small-seeded fodder crops as an attachment with the walk behind tractor was developed to suit local condition farming system and to fill mechanization gap. Physical properties such as size and shape, thousand-grain weight, coefficient of static friction, angle of repose, bulk density and true density are important for the development of seed drill have been investigated. Based on the properties of the seed, two fluted rollers having trapezoidal and asymmetric grooves and cell type roller metering mechanism was developed for berseem and lucerne seeds. Preliminary evaluation with four metering device including inclined plate was performed in the laboratory for both crops at forward speeds of 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h. The performance was evaluated on the basis of seed rate, seed damage percentage, seeds per meter length, seed to seed distance and missing index. The observed data were statistically analyzed by using statistical software ´SAS`. It was found that there is a significant effect of metering device, forward speed and crop type on dependant parameters studied at 5 % of level significance. Based on consideration of seed rate and seed damaged percentage value as a major factor, the trapezoidal grooved fluted roller performed better for both berseem and lucerne crop. For trapezoidal grooved fluted roller at forward speed 2 km/h and for berseem and lucerne crop, the seed rate was 10.14 and 13.97 kg/ha, seed damage percentage (1. 49 and 2.78%), seed to seed distance (6.96 and 7.17 mm), seeds per meter length (153 and 150) and missing index (0.18 and 0.18), respectively. Thereafter, the field evaluation of the seed drill was carried out by selecting trapezoidal grooved fluted roller, the same three forward speeds (1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h) and two crops (berseem and lucerne). The selected dependent variables were seed rate, seedlings per meter length and missing index. Seed rate was considerably increased as compared to laboratory results due to the vibrational effect of the walk behind tractor. The number of seedlings were in the range of 123-136 per m length for both the crops. The missing index for both crops at same speed was in the range of 23 to 27 %.ennullThesis