Soil Forces Prediction on Animal Traction Operation in Bongo District of the Upper East Region of Ghana

The soil and implement interaction during ploughing can be analyzed through the geometry and working depth of the implement and soil parameters such as shear stress, cohesion and soil internal frictional angle. The objective of the study was to predict the forces that react with the implement parts during ploughing in the three (3) sampled areas in Bongo District. Soil samples were taken at a 30 cm depth. Laboratory tests were performed on them on triaxial, grading and Atterberg limits. The results were used to describe the soil and for the force prediction. There were some field tests to determine tractive efforts, speed of travel and ploughing depth. The three (3) soil types considered were sandy loam, loamy sand and course loamy sand. Food and Agriculture Organization classified the three (3) soil types as Lixisols and the local soil series also put all the soil samples as Tranchera. At the time of ploughing, the densities were ranging from 1.28 to 1.44g/cm3 and moisture content of 9.43 to 22.96%. The rake angle measured on the animal plough was 190, and the soil metal frictional angles of the three soil type ranged from 32.355 to 37.1290 with soil cohesion of 0 kPa for course loamy sand, 2.664 kPa for loamy sand and 56.338 kPa for the sandy loam soil. The resultant (P) forces for the three soil samples; loamy sand, sandy loam and course loamy sand were 0.5551 kN, 0.1024 kN and 0.0106 kN respectively.