Ergonomically evaluating manual fodder cutter for drudgery reduction in animal husbandry Sinha Jaya1,*, Kumar Adarsh2 1Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur-848 125, Bihar, India 2Division of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012, India *Corresponding Author: Jaya Sinha, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur-848 125, Bihar, India, Email: jaya.sinha@rpcau.ac.in
Online published on 1 November, 2023. Abstract Background Fodder cutter is one of the agricultural equipment used to chop all kinds of green and dry fodder into small pieces to feed animals. Due to less cost and ease of operation, it is available in every household owning cattle. It is most common and widely available machines used twice a day to chopped the fodder. The previous study suggested that operation on existing fodder cutters is physically demanding because of the high energy requirement and continuous adoption of awkward work postures. The power required to cut the fodder by traditionally used fodder cutter was very high than power applied by the operator for cutting leads to high physiological demand and more energy expenditures throughout the degree of rotation flywheel. Methods The ergonomic assessment of traditional fodder cutter was done and compared with the fodder cutter having different number of blades. Fodder cutter with number of blades for cutting i.e. single, double, three and four blade and reduction in throat area by A, A/2, A/3 and A/4 from the existing fodder cutter, were taken for the study. The ergonomic evaluation of the manual fodder cutters in terms physiological parameters (oxygen consumption, heart rate and energy expenditure) during the chopping operation was measured. Result Fodder cutter with three blades and reduce throat area by A/3 from existing fodder cutter has minimum energy consumption while operating fodder cutter. From the study it was observed that the power required to chopped the fodder was less for three blade fodder cutter and it was ergonomically compatible for the operation. Top Keywords Ergonomics, Livestock, Manual fodder cutter. Top |