ABSTRACT

A field experiment was conducted in 1996/97 and 1997/98, in Palmas de Monte Alto, BA, Brazil, to investigate the efficiency of different methods of cotton stalk destruction under dry-farming conditions. The efficiency, operational timing, and cost of cotton stalk destruction of methods such as manual hoeing, stalk clearing machines, disk harrow, plowing with a disk plow and a cutter-shredder alone and associated with the last two methods were evaluated. The results showed that for the cultivation conditions of Southwest Bahia, the most efficient methods were: manual hoeing, plowing with disk plow and the association of plowing with disc plow and cutter-shredder. In these methods, 97% of crop residue destruction and a regrowth of less than 2% were registered.

Key words:
cotton; mechanization; implements