UDC 631.356.44
DOI 10.36461/NP.2025.76.4.003

THEORETICAL JUSTIFICATION OF THE DESIGN AND KINEMATIC PARAMETERS OF THE BEATER-ROTOR LOOSENER OF A POTATO HARVESTER
K.Z. Kukhmazov, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, A.M. Kolesnikov, Postgraduate
Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Penza State Agrarian University",
Penza, Russia, tel. 89273624824, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The potato is an important food crop and is widely cultivated in many regions of the Russian Federation, including Penza Oblast.
One of the most labor-intensive technological processes in potato cultivation is harvesting. On heavy soils, harvesting is performed using various potato harvesters, which use digging blades to lift the soil layer with tubers and transfer it to separating chain elevators, where soil impurities are sifted out and tubers, tops, and unsorted clumps are dumped behind the machine onto the field surface. The main disadvantages of potato harvesters are low productivity and a large amount of soil impurities in the harvested potato pile.
To increase the productivity of the harvesting unit and reduce soil impurities in the harvested potato pile, Penza State Agrarian University has modernized a KT-2V potato harvester by installing a beater-rotor soil loosener in front of the main elevator. The beater-rotor loosener consists of a blade beater and a rotor shaft, rotating toward each other at the same linear speeds.
Theoretical studies have established the radius of the rotor shaft as R = 65 mm, the radius of the beater as R = 300 mm, the length of the beater blade as l = 250 mm, and the number of blades on the beater as z = 12 pcs. Equations describing the trajectory of the tip of the blade of the beater and a formula for determining the absolute speed of the beater when interacting with the soil layer were also derived.
Keywords: potatoes, potato pile, potato harvesting, potato harvester, rotor shaft, blade beater, rotor shaft radius, blade beater radius, linear speed, absolute speed.

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UDC 633.15
DOI 10.36461/NP.2025.76.4.004

EFFECT OF FOLIAR TREATMENT WITH MICROFERTILIZERS ON MAIZE GRAIN YIELD
S.A. Semina, Doctor of Agriculture sciences, Professor;
I.V. Gavryushina, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Associate Professor;
E.V. Nikulina, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences; A.S. Paliychuk, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences;
G.V. Ilyina, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor
Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Penza State Agrarian University" Penza, Russia, tel. (8412) 628-151, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Currently, the use of complex fertilizers with chelated microelements for foliar application is increasing in cultivation of maize. This article deals with experimental data on the effect of foliar treatment with microfertilizers on grain yield in the forest-steppe conditions of the Middle Volga region. The research was carried out in 2023-2024 at Konstantinovo CJSC in the Penza region on the leached chernozem soil. The experiment was conducted in quadruplicate according to generally accepted methods. The following microfertilizers such as Aktiv Azot, Plantafid, Mikrovit-3 (zinc chelate), Mikrovit K-1 (iron chelate), and Akvarin Universal were used for foliar treatment of the early-maturing maize grains. Foliar treatment with microelement fertilizers increased the number of generative organs per plant by 8.0-13.0%, with Mikrovit K-1 (iron chelate) being the most effective. Microfertilizer application with Aktiv Azot, Plantafid, and Mikrovit-3 (zinc chelate) increased cob length by 2.8-5.5%. Foliar treatment with the Plantafid and Akvarin Universal fertilizers effected on cob grain content, increasing the number of grains per cob by 6.7% and 2.5%, respectively. Microfertilizers increased the grain weight per cob by 4.0-15.3%, with foliar treatment of Plantafid being the most effective. It was observed that the foliar application of Plantafid effected primarily on grain productivity with an extra grain yield of 1.66 t/ha, or 22.2%. The application of other microfertilizers increased grain yield by 2.0 to 12.8%.
Keywords: corn, microfertilizers, grain, structure, yield.

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UDC 631.431; 631.58
DOI 10.36461/NP.2025.76.4.021

MONITORING THE AVERAGE DENSITY OF ARABLE SOIL LAYER DEPENDING ON CROP ROTATION IN THE MOUNTAINOUZ ZONE OF NORTH OSSETIA
S.E. Kuchiev¹, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Associate Professor,
A.Kh. Kozyrev², Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor
¹Gorsky State Agrarian University, Vladikavkaz, Russia, 8(919)4249743, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
²North Caucasian Research Institute of Mountain and Piedmont Agriculture – the Affiliate of Vladikavkaz Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Science 363110, North Ossetia-Alania, Mikhailovskoe village, 8(918)7050330, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Monitoring soil agrophysical researches under conditions of erosion processes on slope and mountain areas is relevant for soil fertility preservation for future generations. The research is aimed at long-term monitoring of the average density in the arable layer of mountain-meadow subalpine leached loamy-gravelly soils with a humus-illuvial horizon on clay shale eluvium, depending on crop rotation, in the mountainous zone of North Ossetia. Field experiments were carried out in several stages from 1996 to 2013 at the mountain long-term station of the North Caucasian Research Institute of Mountain and Piedmont Agriculture – the Affiliate of Vladikavkaz Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Science, located at an altitude of 1,560 m above sea level on a northeastern slope with a steepness of 7 in Dargavs (Prigorodny district of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania). Erosion processes analysis in mountain meadow soils allowed to determine many soil fertility indices, including average soil density. Obtained results confirmed assumptions about the structure of mountain meadow soils. The absence of non-capillary pores in the soil and the significant content of aggregate (clay shale eluvium) increased soil density. It was noticed that the average soil density above 1.35 g/cm³ negatively impacted soil fertility; under the influence of tractor wheels between rows, the soil was compacted in the 20 cm layer to 1.36–1.48 g/cm³. In soils with altered agrophysical parameters over 18 years of observation, bulk soil density increased with depth. The most significant changes affected the topsoil (0-10 cm), where the average soil density in the experimental site was 1.38 g/cm³, 0.08 g/cm³ higher than the values from the first observation period. The second and third layers increased by 0.06 and 0.07 g/cm³, respectively, to 1.45 and 1.51 g/cm³. In the mountain-meadow soil conditions, the average soil density values tend to be considered satisfactory for crop rotation.
Keywords: monitoring, average density, bulk density, clay shale eluvium, mountain-meadow soils.

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UDC 632.51:633.63
DOI 10.36461/NP.2025.76.4.013

WEED INFESTATION OF SUGAR BEET CROPS IN PENZA REGION
E.V. Zheryakov, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Associate Professor;
S.A. Semina, Doctor of Agriculture Sciences, Professor
Penza State Agrarian University, Penza, Russia,
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The monitoring of sugar beet crops phytosanitary conditions was carried out in the Penza Region from 1998 to 2018. A more complex weed structure was found with hard-to-eradicate perennial varieties predomi-nating. The infestation dynamics of root-suckering weeds increased from 1.1 to 6.1 pcs/m², while the number of sow thistle and milk thistle increased from 6.40 to 14.10 pcs/m². The annual dicotyledonous varieties were dominated in the weed structure with 51.01-56.73%, represented primarily by Amaranthus retroflexus L. and Chenopodium album L. The germination period of weed seeds was extended with the maximum number of seedlings in May-June. The high efficacy of triple application of combined herbicides (betanal group in combi-nation with triflusulfuron-methyl) during the most vulnerable stages of weed lifecycle was experimentally proved. The biological efficacy of the herbicides (94.7-98.5%) was proved to be dependent on the phenological stage of weed lifecycle. Temporal trends in the transformation of weeds in sugar beet agrocenoses were iden-tified, and critical periods of maximum weed vulnerability to the herbicide treatment were observed.
Keywords: sugar beet, weeds, phytosanitary monitoring, herbicides, biological efficiency, weed infesta-tion.

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