IMPACT OF PRECISION AGRICULTURE SYSTEMS ON THE PERFORMING EFFICIENCY OF CORN HARVESTING FOR SILAGE
The purpose of the study. The development of precision farming began in the 1990s with the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). During this time, a wide range of equipment, sensors, monitors and controllers have also been developed. With the rapid development and adoption of mobile computing, high-speed Internet and reliable satellites, the use of precision farming technologies has grown so much over the past decade that it now affects practically every area of agricultural business. Currently, the RK market offers various equipment for precision farming such as parallel and automatic driving systems, yield mapping and etc. At the same time, the possibilities of obtaining efficiency from the use of precision farming systems in certain conditions of their use have not been fully studied. The article presents the results of comparative tests of a forage harvester «Krone BIG X 700» with a header «EasyCollect 750-2» for corn harvesting for silage in the conditions of Northern Kazakhstan. The purpose of the research was to establish the effect of the AUTO PILOT automatic steering system (without using a GPS signal) on the agrotechnical, energy and operational-technological performance of the forage harvester «Krone BIG X 700» with the header «EasyCollect 750-2». Methodology. The comparative test methodology was based on the requirements of state standards. In the process of comparative tests, the test conditions, agrotechnical, energy, operational-technological and economic indicators of the forage harvester «Krone BIG X 700» with the header «EasyCollect 750-2» equipped with an AUTO PILOT automatic steering system and without the use of the system in the North Kazakhstan region. Test conditions during corn harvesting for silage were typical for the zone of the North Kazakhstan region. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that in the work the operational, technological and economic indicators of the parameters of technical means of precision farming systems in the conditions of the North Kazakhstan region were studied for the first time. Research findings. According to the results of the research, it was found that the use of the AUTO PILOT system (without using a GPS signal) in harvesting corn for silage with a unit consisting of the forage harvester «Krone BIG X 700» with the corn header «EasyCollect 750-2» does not provide changes in agrotechnical, operational technological and energy performance indicators, while increases the total cost of funds in the amount of 266 tenge/ha.