Results of exploitation testing of potato diggers used for mercantile potato harvesting in conditions of northern Kosovo and Metohija

Mercantile potato harvesting is an operation that requires a quality work of potato diggers, because of the possible damage to tubers caused by the working body that can affect the quality and duration of the storage of tubers. For potatoes harvesting, the best effects are expressed by single-row and double-row diggers with a conveyor belt. This paper presents the results of exploitation tests on various potato diggers used for mercantile potato harvesting in the ecological conditions of northern Kosovo and Metohia. The aim of our study was to determine the quality of the work of potato diggers, the power consumption and surface effect. On the basis of these results, it was concluded that the total loss of potato tubers was between 5.01% (565.7 kg ha-1) and 11.50% (1,291.2 kg ha-1) according to the yields in the studied plots. During the testing the digger generated effects ranged from 0.10 ha h-1 up to 0.28 ha h-1 , with an average fuel consumption of 12.60 l ha-1 up to 19.20 l ha-1 .