Brassica Carinata Harvesting Losses Reduction

Abstract

The Brassica Carinata cultivation has recently gained, also in Italy, an increasing interest due to the reduced seed losses in respect to the Brassica Napus. As the Brassica Carinata plantation presents a good natural resistance to the dehiscence process, it allows for considering unnecessary the use of specified heads that are the same employed for the rapeseed harvesting, giving a losses reduction but an increase in costs. From the tests conducted in the plain of Ravenna in 2008, the reduced seed losses were only reported in the areas where the Brassica Carinata plants were not so high, not particularly tangled and without allotment. In this case, in fact, the rubbing action of the head separator can cause losses due to the opening of the detached siliquae. Furthermore the working capacity of the combine harvester can suffer negative consequences from the entanglement of the plants. Thus, it is necessary to careful evaluate the characteristics of the plantation as the growth and the entangled level before choosing the most suitable unit to harvest. The same harvesting machine on different plants can cause an improvement of harvesting costs as well as less profits due to a more seed losses.