Peanut harvest quality: Relationship between soil tillage management and threshing systems

Aim of study: The objective was evaluating the peanut combining process quality in three soil tillage systems associated with threshing and separation systems efficiency of peanut combine available on market. Area of study: Brazil. Material and methods: The treatments were three soil tillage systems (conventional, reduced and strip) and two harvesters with different threshing systems. The losses were collected (subdivided in internal mechanisms, pickup platform, and total losses) in fifteen points for each treatment, as impurity samples, following the statistical process control. Main results: The soil tillage only in sowing line reduced the peanut combining quality (30.4% more mineral impurities and 37.7% more vegetal impurities). The machine with tangential flow presented lower capacity of mineral impurity removal, regardless the soil tillage system. Research highlights: The losses were similar for conventional and reduced soil tillages, which indicates that it would be possible to reduce the number of agricultural operations before peanut sowing, consequently lessening costs without loss in process quality.