Wheat has played an important role in human agriculture since ancient times. Increasing rates of processed wheat product fabrication require more and more laboratory studies of product quality. This, in turn, requires the use, in production and in field conditions, of sufficiently accurate, fast and relatively low-cost quality control methods, including the detection of fungal diseases. One of the most widespread fungal diseases of wheat in the world is ergot caused by the fungi genus Claviceps. Optical methods are promising for this disease identification due to the relative ease of implementation and the possibility of performing fast analyses in large volumes. However, for application in practice, it is necessary to identify and substantiate characteristic spectral markers that make it possible to judge the sample contamination. In this regard, within the framework of this study, the methods of IR absorption spectroscopy in the MIR region and reflection spectroscopy in the UV-vis-NIR ranges, as well as luminescence spectroscopy, were used to study ergot-infected grains of winter wheat of the “Moskovskaya 56” cultivar. To justify the choice of the most specific spectral ranges, the methods of chemometric analysis with supervised classification, namely PCA-LDA and PCA-SVM, were applied. The possibility of separating infected grains according to the IR absorption, reflection spectra in the UV-vis-NIR ranges and visible luminescence spectra was tested.

Wheat is an important agricultural crop grown under various conditions on five continents. The ability to promptly detect and defeat fungal diseases has a significant impact on the volume of the obtained harvest. One of the most significant threats to human and domestic animal health is metabolites produced by Fusarium genus fungi. In this regard, this work is devoted to the possibility of the rapid differentiation between healthy grains and grains simultaneously infected with several species of Fusarium genus fungi (Fusarium graminearum Schwabe FG-30, Fusarium poae Kr-20-14, Fusarium roseum (sambucinum) St-20-3) for practical reasons. An approach based on obtaining hyperspectral data with their subsequent processing using the principal component analysis (PCA) method and determining statistically important spectral regions sensitive for grain infection at different stages (5 and 40 days) was proposed. The effects of the grain orientation and data dimensionality on the classification result were studied. For further practical application in devices for the rapid identification of wheat grains infected with Fusarium, a method based on the use of reflection at wavelengths of 400, 451, 708, 783, 801, and 863 nm, together with normalization [0, 1] and the subsequent projection of spectral data onto the first three principal components (PCs), was proposed, regardless of the grain orientation.

The paper highlights a lack of machines and equipment capable of cleaning highly impure soybean material efficiently and productively. Most of the existing grain cleaning machines are designed for the materials conforming to GOST 17109-88 that specifies weed and oilseed impurity contents of 2 and 6 percent, respectively. In reality, a typical soybean post-harvest waste often contains 20 to 60 percent of material unsuitable for extracting raw protein, that makes this type of material completely non–separable for this type of machine. (Research purpose) The research aims to determine the optimal efficiency of separating heterogeneous bulk mixtures in a vertically ascending air channel. (Materials and methods) To accomplish this, the authors employed a rotary batch classifier RBK 30 and a prototype sample of a precision air classifier PAC with column air flow accelerators. The paper defines impurity separation completeness and soybean waste separation efficiency in a novel pneumatic classifier, considering the accelerator thickness and the height above the processed material. (Results and discussion) The findings reveal that traditional pneumatic channels achieve no more than 20 percent of separation efficiency for highly impure soybean material, while the precision air classifier demonstrates approximately a 45 percent separation. (Conclusions) Typical air flow machines struggle with high impurity of material. The separation efficiency of highly impure material can be enhanced by equalizing the air flow velocity inside and above the layer of the separated material and installing a core air flow accelerator. The study indicates that the material being processed can be separated by air flow, provided a specialized pneumatic separation channel is used. Due to the ratio of the core accelerator height and the height above the material, the air flow velocity inside and above the separated layer is equalized.

The market for self-propelled combine harvesters in Russia is diverse, with all major global manufacturers present. The domestic leader in combine building is the Rostselmash combine plant. The line of the plant is represented by 24 types of agricultural machinery, and it is constantly being updated. One of the new models “NOVA” is designed for direct combining and separate harvesting of grain and other crops. Self-propelled combine harvester “NOVA” is designed for direct combining and separate harvesting of grain crops and other crops, and with the use of accessories supplied by a separate order of the consumer, for harvesting the grain part of corn, sunflower, grain legumes, cereals, rapeseed, on flat fields with a slope of no more than 8 degrees in all grain-sowing zones. The article presents an analysis and assessment of the main technical and operational and working technological indicators of this combine harvester, based on the protocols of the MIS of the 2016–2017 seasons, for three crops: winter wheat, spring rape and soybeans. According to the test results, the grain harvester “NOVA” showed high technological productivity and reliability, and the operational time availability factor was 0.995, the MTBF of the second complexity group was 125 g. The technological process of the tested combine corresponds to the coefficient 1. Based on the results of field tests, summary tables and the results are verified with regulatory documents, in such indicators as: productivity per hour, utilization rate of shift time, and specific fuel consumption during shift work (without loss of power). With the full satisfaction of the “NOVA” combine harvester with all official requirements, its indicators for grain loss behind the header, total grain losses behind the thresher, and grain crushing decreased even in comparison with those declared by the manufacturer.

The paper highlights that air (aspiration) separation of meal particles by density and size using an air flow is the most efficient and economically viable method for removing husks from protein in sunflower meal. Reducing husk content and increasing protein concentration enhances the feed value and broadens the application scope of the meal, particularly in highyield livestock farming. (Research purpose) The study aims to improve the efficiency of protein fraction extraction during the purification of sunflower meal in a vertical pneumatic channel equipped with battery-type and column-type air accelerators, as well as input flow deflectors. (Materials and methods) The research was conducted at the Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM using a model of a pneumatic separation channel. The column-type and battery-type air accelerators ensured uniform airflow distribution across the input material layer, improving separation efficiency and enhancing the precision of input material separation. (Results and discussion) The developed model of the vertical pneumatic channel provides a protein yield of at least 75 percent and an impurity removal rate of no less than 70 percent. (Conclusions) The live cross-section coefficient of the accelerator in the model pneumatic channel should be maintained at 50–60 percent, and the height of the battery-type accelerator should range from 55 to 75 millimeters. The recommended installation height of the battery-type accelerator above the input flow deflectors is between 160 and 220 millimeters. The optimal specific load of the processed material is up to 2.0 kilograms per cubic centimeter per hour. At a machine throughput of up to 2 tons per hour, the protein content in the raw material ranges from 35 to 40 percent.