Soybean crop plays a fundamental role in country economy, and studies on the factors that have an effect on its yields have major importance. One of these factors is related to the interaction between sowing time and crop yield. Delays during sowing operation result in yield decreases and one of the reasons for that are the necessity to apply a great quantity of fertilizer at crop establishment. These great quantities imply on longer loading time of drill, affecting its operation capacity. One way to overcome this problem is to anticipate fertilizing, carrying it out on the previous crop. Therefore, this paper aimed to evaluate the influence of fertilizing out of sowing time on soybean crop profits. In order to achieve this, an empirical model in electronic spreadsheet, was developed to simulate the effects of using different cultivars, sowing periods and productions systems on the profits. The results showed that, for the analyzed scene, fertilizing anticipation promotes rationalization of planning agricultural machinery, reducing the number of machinery necessary to sowing operation and increase crop profits.
agricultural mechanization; model; costs
