TECHNOLOGICAL OPTIONS OF POST-HARVEST TREATMENT OF NECTARIFEROUS GRASS SEEDS IN THE SYSTEM OF ORGANIC FARMING
One of the prospective and profitable types of organic farming is production of unconventional food raw materials, including honey and nectariferous grass seeds. In the system of organic farming the cultivation of seed grass does not include technological operations of chemical disinfection of seeds and crops spraying. After the combine harvesting the seed grass heaphas heavy dockage (up to 43%)and relatively high moisture content (20-28%). Technological settings and adjustment of grain combine harvesters cannot provide the high degree of seed cleanliness in the seed heap in the hopper. After the post-harvest treatment the seeds should meet the sowing requirements in terms of cleanliness, germination, moisture and weed content, which are specified in the State Standard GOST 28636-90 “Seeds of Little-Spread Forage Crops. Sorting and Sowing Characteristics.Specifications”. Due to the high dockage of bluebell (Phacelia) seed heap it should be cleaned prior to drying to avoid the drying of the major part of foreign material. Specific mechanical, physical and biological features of seeds were found to require the mild (up to 45°),layer-by-layerdrying on a rotary dryer. For automatic moisture measurement an in-line hygrometer is recommended that excludes the human factor and reduces labour intensity. The following treatment technology is suggested: heap loading; preliminary cleaning; drying; transporting to the hopper; cooling and temporary storing in the hopper; air-sieve cleaning; assorting; packing and warehousing for storage. This technology is designed on the basis of a rotary dryer with the following units: receiving hopper with the capacity of 8 m3, ОВС-25 heap cleaner,СКМ-0,25 rotary dryer, ventilated hopper with the capacity of 25 m3, K217 air sieve, K553 indented cylinder, and a fork lift loader for transporting to the storage facility. As compared with the basic version the offered set of machines allows to improve the drying productivity 2,1 times and reduce the number of operating personnel 1,5-2 times.