Introduction

• Cereal crop is cut by shearing action of cutting elements.
• During the process of shearing, some bending and compression also take place.
• The motion of shearing action may be of;

I. Linear,

ii. Reciprocating and

iii. Rotary

• Following are the harvesting machine for cereals crops.

a) Sickle:

• Curved, hand-held for cutting grass and hay.
• The inside of the curve is the cutting edge, and is plain or serrated.
• The forged end of the blade for fixing the handle is called Tang.
• The protective
• metallic bush fitted at the junction of the blade and the handle to keep the tang tight in the handle is called Ferrule.
• The farm-hand swings the blade against the base of the crop, cutting through the stems with a sawing action.

b) Reaper:

• It is a machine to cut grain crops.
• Depending on the source of power it may be;

I. Animal drawn reaper

ii. Vertical Conveyer reaper (Tractor Mounted)

iii. Vertical Conveyer reaper (Power tiller operated)

c) Mower:

• Mower is a machine to cut herbage crops and leave them in swath.
• There are different types of mower used in different ways;

I. Cylinder mower: – It has rotating helical blades arranged in horizontal cylindrical form. With the rotation of blades, forage or grasses are cut continuously.

ii. Reciprocating mower: – It is a mower with a knife having sections that reciprocate against stationary fingers.

iii. Horizontal rotary mower: – It is a mower with high-speed knife rotating in the horizontal plane.

iv. Gang mower: – It is an assembly of two or more ground driven cylinder mowers.

v. Flail mower: – It is a mower with high-speed swinging knives, operating either in a horizontal plane or around a horizontal cylinder.

d) Combines:

• A combine is a reaper and thresher put together to harvest, threshes, separates, cleans and collects grain from the standing crops in one operation.
• Bagging arrangement may be provided with a pick-up attachment.
• According to the source of power used, combines may be classified as;

1. Self-propelled type
2. PTO operated type or trailed type