Affectations Caused to Mechanized Harvest by Weeds of Woody Consistency

Resumo

Weeds cause severe damage to crops with large economic losses. In Cuba, in the latter, a group of woody weeds have invaded agro-ecosystems, mainly those linked to sugarcane activity, as a consequence of inadequate crop management. The present work was carried out with the objective of determining the effects caused to the mechanized harvest by the species A. procera, of woody consistency, in “Eulalio García” Sugarcane Production Farm, in Mayabeque Province in western Cuba. Blocks and fields were selected in which strips formed by 10 furrows were established, spaced at 1.6 m, which were consecutively numbered for random selection in the sample formation process, which was constituted with 30% of the fringes formed in each field. The time lost due to the obstruction of the weeds was evaluated by measuring the time elapsed from the moment the cutting activity was interrupted by the appearance of the obstacle until its restart once it had been overcome. Statistical processing included the calculation of central tendency and dispersion statistics and analysis of variance. Significant differences were found in the number of obstacles between fields and strips due to the heterogeneous distribution of plants in the area. The average time used to clear the obstacles was 26 seconds and the total time in the entire test was 0.29 hours.