ABSTRACT

A tractor mounted drop spreader was developed. The major components of the machine and their specifications are; the hopper which has the capacity of 0.0985m3, two shafts of 20mm diameter each and 700mm in length, the metering device which consist of the auger of pitch 180mm and length of 50mm and an orifice of an area 300m2and the three point linkage. The entire housing rest on a frame of capacity 0.0985m3.A field evaluation of the machine was performed to determine the effects of 540 rpm and 1000rpm of two PTO speeds, hoppper filling capacities of 8.19kg, 22.32kg, 38.53kg and 63.35kg and hopper orifices of 0.33m, l.32m, 2.98m2and 5.29m2 on the efficiency of the machine. Results showed that at 1000rpm there was increase in discharge than at 540rpm.Statistical analysis of variance model (ANOVA) showed that at 5% and 1% level of significance, the revolution speed of 540rpm had significant effect on the metering of the granules and at the revolution speed of 1000 there was no significant effect on the metering of the granules. And at 5% and 1% level of significance, the hopper orifices had effect on the metering of the granules. Also the results showed that the machine maintained uniform spreading with field efficiency of 85.7% and coefficient of variation of 2.9%, 1.20% and 2.74% respectively. The cost of the machine is Ni 16625.