Mechanized urea spraying system for balers to enhance the nutritional quality of straw: a step to prevent straw burning

A large portion of unused crop residues is burnt in the fields primarily to clear the left-over straw and stubbles after the combine harvest. Studies have reported several ill effects of crop-residue burning on soil organic carbon and fertility, including reduction in productivity in the long term, environmental pollution and human health. It also produces greenhouse gases causing global warming. Rice and wheat produce large amounts of residue in India. Non-availability of labour, the high cost of residue removal from the field and the increasing use of combines in harvesting the crops are the main reasons for burning crop residues in the fields. Rice straw is unsuitable animal feed due to its high silica content and wheat straw for due to its hard stem and diffi-culty chewing in unchopped form. Using supplements like urea and is feeding straw sprayed with urea improves its nutritive value and intake. We have developed a mechanized baler equipped with a urea spraying system for spraying urea during baling operations on crop residues (paddy or wheat straw) to enhance their nutritional value. The developed system was evaluated in combine a harvested wheat residue field and nutritional analysis was performed. The crude protein in untreated wheat straw increased from 3.68% to 10.10% after urea treatment. The metabolizable energy was also found to improve by 3% compared to untreated straw. Thus, urea-treated bales have potential use in dairy farming.