Testing experimental model of trailed windrower.

Forage harvesting on grassland and on cultivated land is a common operation from spring until late fall, aiming to ensure to animals the daily needs of food. The quantity and quality of forage depends on the harvesting technology and equipment used for this purpose. Depending on the technology of work adopted, forage plants can be collected, for low moisture silage after swath conditioning, at a moisture content of 50... 55%, or allowed to dry until the moisture of approx. 20% and collected them to be stored as hay or bale of hay. Given the need to increase the quality of life in long term and under pressure from increased demands of consumers of vegetable and animal agricultural products, S.C. MECANO FUC S.A. and INMA Bucharest have joined scientific researches, concerning rational exploitation technology of permanent or cultivated grassland, by realizing an innovative equipment for harvesting and conditioning forage, performing operations such as: mowing, conditioning and forming swaths on the field, to dry naturally. In this paper, experimental research consisted in determining the operational and energetic qualitative indices of a windrower with oscillating mowing technology, sickle bar mower and rollers with two metal crushing rollers with helically bars, this windrower performing plants cutting, crushing and forming swaths. The conditioning process reduces the drying process on the field, preserving the nutritional qualities of the forage, thus avoiding depreciation by leaving them on the soil for long time. Experimental results obtained during experiments will be used to optimize the work process, targeting exceeding performances than those currently existing for the equipment in the same category, so that farmers could have access to an technical equipment for harvesting forage in grasslands and cultivated land, which satisfies the requirements of adaptation techniques and technologies for the rational exploitation of grasslands, according to the global and regional climate change.