The present practice of removing cotton stalk from the field is pulling them by using a locally manufactured cotton stalk puller. Removal of cotton stalk by this puller is a cumbersome task and requires more time and labour. To mechanize the process of cotton shredding and mixing a tractor operated cotton stalk shredder-mixer was developed and it was evaluated in the field. The developed cotton stalk shredder-mixer consisted of different units which included plant converging unit, cutting and conveying unit, shredding unit, uprooting unit and mixing unit.
The field evaluation of the machine was conducted by taking speed of tractor (2, 3, 4 and 5 km/h), number of knives (2, 3, 4 and 6) and shredding plate speed (38.57, 45.58 and 52.60 m/s) as independent parameters. The effect of these parameters on mixing efficiency was studied. Mixing efficiency was found maximum (92.19 per cent) at the combination of tractor speed 4 km/h, four number of knives and 38.57 m/s shredding plate speed. At this combination field capacity of the machine was 0.42 ha/h and average length of cut pieces was 55.5 mm.