Crop Harvesting Performance Analysis via Telemetry: Fuel and Environmental Insights

Telemetry systems are increasingly finding applications in agriculture for a variety of tasks. These systems assist farmers in optimizing farm processes. By leveraging these technologies, energy resources can be used more efficiently, leading to reduced environmental pollution. The primary objective of this research is to analyze telemetry data and explore ways to enhance the efficiency of combine harvesters (CHs). For this study, data from the Lexion 750 TT CH equipped with a crawler chassis was selected. Harvesting operations were conducted across fields growing popular plant types in Lithuania, including wheat, barley, rapeseed, oats, corn, and beans. The selected CH was also equipped with a remote monitoring system for tracking machine parameters. During the research, the structure of the time distribution of the work and the consumed fuel was analyzed. The highest operational efficiency—defined as the proportion of time spent on productive harvesting tasks—was 78%, observed during the oat harvest, when the unloading while harvesting, unloading while idle, harvesting, and headland turns were 3%, 2%, 64%, and 9%, respectively. The lowest efficiency, 56%, occurred during wheat harvesting. It was found that harvesting 899.32 ha of six different plant species with the tested CH produces 46.11 t of GHG emissions in CO2eq. The largest part of the emission in CO2eq was released during direct harvesting, with the engine operating at 1800–1900 min−1. However, as much as 30% of the time and 11.2% of fuel was consumed by the CH for non-harvesting activities. In conclusion, attention should be paid to reducing the inefficient use of CH time. In this way, technological operations would not only be carried out more rationally, but also environmental pollution would be reduced, and in the case of this study, we could potentially reduce CO2eq emissions by more than 10%.