| Abstract: | China is one of the major rapeseed production countries in the world, but harvesting mechanization was still backward, and high harvest loss was a key inhibiting factor for rapeseed production. To obtain optimum harvesting date for winter rape in the Yangtze River Valley of China, artificial simulated combine harvesting and artificial two-stage harvesting were adopted to find correlations between harvesting date, rape variety, seed oil content, protein content, grain moisture rate, rapeseed straw moisture content, rapeseed unthreshing rate, grain drop loss rate, thousand seeds weight(TSW), and harvesting economic coefficient(HEC). Analysis of variance showed that rapeseed oil content, protein content and TSW were correlated with rape variety; HEC was correlated with harvesting method and rape variety. Rape variety was the dominant factor of rapeseed oil content, protein content,TSW and HEC. Grain moisture rate, un-threshing rate, grain drop loss rate and straw moisture content were correlated with harvesting method and date. Harvesting date was the dominant factor of rapeseed moisture rate, un-threshing rate, grain drop loss rate and straw moisture rate. Single factor tests further proved that harvesting date had less impact on rapeseed oil content, protein content, TSW and HEC. It showed little correlation with rapeseed quality except grain moisture rate. The optimum harvesting date could be known by change in straw moisture content. The combined harvesting should be carried out during the grain moisture content of 15%-20% with TSW stabilized in the highest level. The twostage harvesting cutting should be carried out at the grain moisture content of 35%-40%.This research offered a reference to harvesting method and date for rape cultivated in the Yangtze River Valley. |
