Animal by-products are additional outputs of the main farm production. They should be integrated into the closed cycle of agro-ecosystems to restore the fertility of farm land. The aim of the study was to develop a comprehensive approach to the use and pre-application treatment of manure in the form of animal by-products. The study analyzed the current challenges in the processing and application of animal/poultry manure as organic fertilizer in different regions of the Russian Federation. The authors analyzed the quantity and quality of animal by-products, technologies and equipment available in the regions, laws and regulations relating to the assessment of the man-made environmental impact, and the state of environmental monitoring. The study found that the annual volume of animal by-products formed in agricultural organizations and available for processing and fertilizing application was above 250 million tons. While the use of organic fertilizers in 2022, for example, amounted to only 70.3 million tons. This could be due to the lack of equipment and technologies in agricultural organizations, and the underdevelopment of the animal by-product industry. The authors believe that the considered industry should apply the best available manure processing technologies, high-tech engineering systems, digital monitoring of production processes, and intelligent digital tools for on-farm environmental control. This list may also include adaptive measures of economic support for agro-ecological activities and relevant eco-standards for environmentally safe technologies, machines and equipment. The above proposals will add at least 350 million tons of high-quality organic fertilizers to domestic agricultural production and reduce the negative balance of nutrients by at least 2000 thousand tons of NPK

Liquid manure effluents of pig farms can be used as fertilizers after some treatment. In order to substantiate the design and technological scheme of the pontoon pump for homogenization and pumping of liquid organic fertilizersfrom manure lagoons and reservoirs, the authors analyzed scientific, technical and special literature, as well as carried out patent research of relevant methods and devices. The developed technological scheme of a pontoon pump represents three main stages: grinding and mixing in the dismembrator, pumping and transportation by the screw part of the pump to the discharge chamber, feeding into the pressure line by the vane part of the pontoon pump. According to the method of multifactor experiment planning, the parameters having the greatest influence on the pumping of liquid organic fertilizers have been determined: the diameter of the auger conveyer casing, the length of the auger conveyer, and the shaft speed. The paper provides a rationale for a design and workflow diagram of the pontoon pump with a dismembrator. This working element crushes and mixes coarse-dispersed mass (liquid organic fertilizers), and thus increases the efficiency of their homogenization and pumping from the manure lagoons of livestock facilities. The main working element of the pumping part is the auger conveyer, which is a shaft with a three-round spiral coiled on it. Search experiments were carried out in production conditions of treatment facilities of the “Kirovsky’ pig farm designed for 30 thousand pigs kept litter-free. The conducted researches determined the effective design and technological scheme of the pontoon pump used for homogenization and pumping of liquid organic fertilizers from manure lagoons. Based on the results, we calculated its main operating parameters and built the pressure-flow characteristic of the proposed design of a pontoon pump prototype.

The digital twin of a technological machine can significantly improve the efficiency of operation and service of farm machinery. The authors carried out theoretical studies to identify the effectiveness of using digital twins in terms of the technical condition of agricultural machinery. The article considers a possibility of using digital twins of technological machines during their operation and maintenance to automate repair inspections digitize engineering information on maintenance and repair, minimize equipment downtime, and ensure quality control and the safety of operation. The authors present a functional dependency formula of the efficiency of using digital twins in operation and maintenance. It is established that reasonable decisions on maintenance and repair of equipment can be made only in case of digital twin modeling of various full and partial failures, taking into account operation modes, environmental impact and the wear intensity of parts. Therefore, the authors proposed to install RFID tags and monitoring terminals based on GPS, ISOBUS and modern software. They can analyze in real time information on the compliance of the process indicators to the specified parameters, and give instructions and control actions to the machine operator to correct the operation of tractors, working tools of implements, and units. Studies have shown the effectiveness of using digital twins of agricultural machinery as they can reduce costs for maintenance, elimination of failures, and unplanned downtime, as well as increase productivity.

Spring harrows have become widely used for surface tillage. A significant disadvantage of wide-level harrows is the unevenness of the loosening depth. The new design of the spring harrow with a parallelogram suspension of the working section copies the field microrelief to ensure a uniform loosening depth. The purpose of the study was to check the compliance with agrotechnical requirements of the spring harrow with a parallelogram suspension of the working section. To compile the mathematical model of the working section motion, use was made of the Lagrange equations. As a result, the authors determined the main adjustable technological parameters that affect the traction resistance and the depth of tillage. To verify the agrotechnical indicators, the authors designed a prototype of a spring harrow with the following adjustable parameters: the angle of the spring teeth (30°, 60° and 90°) and the force of the compensation spring unit (4, 6, and 8 kN). The wide-level spring harrow consisted of seven working sections with a width of three m and five rows of teeth with a pitch of 610 mm. The sections are attached to the longitudinal bracket of the frame by two pairs of rods at the front and rear of the frame. Field tests were conducted in the forest-steppe zone of the Southern Urals. Soil type was ordinary chernozem and heavy loam. During the tests, the depth of tillage, traction resistance and force of the adjustment spring block were measured. The traction resistance of a spring harrow with a working width of 21 m ranged from 19 to 45 kN. The average soil ridge after harrowing amounted to 3.4 cm, which meets agrotechnical requirements. Experimental studies have proved that the proposed harrow design satisfies agrotechnical requirements: it provides good soil crumbling at a tillage depth of 2 to 10 cm, stability of operation, and uniformity of loosening depth.

The on-farm production of compound feeds from the farm own grain reduces feed costs. The introduction of technological lines for the production of compound feeds in the form of technological modules using gravitational, inertial and centrifugal impact on feed materials will enable small grain processing enterprises to receive a wide range of compound feeds of high quality at a low cost. In order to design high-performance and low-energy feed preparation units of a block-module type, the authors carried out a technical and technological analysis of small grain processing enterprises. As a result, they have developed a block-module unit, including a gravity separator through which grain passes (before being crushed in a direct impact crusher) and grinding products (before preparing compound feeds), as well as a continuous volumetric dispenser with a cylindrical working body and a high-speed mixer humidifier. Compared with its counterparts, the unit ensures the same quality of compound feeds, but at the lowest power consumption (8 kW) and minimal costs when used for the productionof a given type of compound feed (only opening and closing the corresponding dispensers). The developed unit will make it possible to obtain a wide range of low-cost high-quality compound feeds.

Crop rotation contributes to maintaining sustainable farming systems. The application of machine learning will enable more efficient design and prediction of crop rotation productivity. Traditional data processing methods do not meet the requirements of intelligent farming. To evaluate the application of machine learning, models for predicting crop rotation productivity were built based on six algorithms: decision tree (CART), random forest (RF), bootstrap aggregating (Bagging), Gradient Boosting, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and artificial neural network (ANN). The study used time series data on the productivity of nine types of crop rotations at three levels of technogenic inputs, obtained in the forest-steppe of the Ob region in Novosibirsk Oblast by the Siberian Research Institute of Agriculture and Chemicalization of Agriculture of the SFSCA RAS during 1999-2019. As an additional predictor, the model included an atmospheric moisture indicator in the form of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), calculated as the average atmospheric moisture indicator for May-July over the rotation of each analyzed crop rotation. Models describing crop rotation productivity based on ANN, Gradient Boosting, and XGBoost algorithms were characterized by the highest predictive abilities depending on the prevailing atmospheric moisture conditions and the level of cultivation technology intensification (R2 = 0.90…0.93). Comparative analysis showed that the model based on extreme gradient boosting demonstrates the best performance with a determination coefficient (R2) of 0.93, root mean square error (RMSE) of 2.34, and mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.81. The possibility of applying machine learning methods as an effective tool for predicting crop rotation productivity has been demonstrated.

The optimal choice of purchased equipment based on its functional characteristics is an important task for modern agricultural enterprises. In order to select the optimal tractor model, the cost and types of work performed were compared with three tractors of traction class 4.0: Kirovets K-5, BTZ 254-K, and DEUTZ-FAHR6230 TTV. To determine the differences through the examination, the authors used a methodology of comparing tractor models, taking into account indicators of technological versatility, agrotechnical properties, potential (expected) productivity and cost of performing technological operations. They also determined an indicator of the technological level of tractors. The assessment results showed the applicability of all models for plowing and harvesting operations, as well as for working with mounted combined machines. However, the models were considered unsuitable for inter-row cultivation. As compared with domestic counterparts, the DEUTZ-FAHR6230 TTV can reach higher speeds and higher performance. However, the technological level of Kirovets K-5 and BTZ 254-K tractors has the same value of 0.72 and surpasses the imported analog DEUTZ-FAHR6230 TTV, which has an indicator of 0.69. Taking into account the functional characteristics and cost of tractors, it is profitable for enterprises to purchase domestic equipment.

A qualitative study of greenhouse carbon dioxide transformation in the soil-plant-atmosphere system requires appropriate tools to make ecosystem models, record the occurring transformations, and process the obtained data. To expand the methodology for studying carbon dioxide flows, the authors developed an installation for studying the mechanisms of CO₂ transformation in the soil-plant-atmosphere system, simulating and ensuring autonomous vital activity of a plant organism with parallel recording and demonstration of the daily dynamics of CO₂ concentration inside a completely closed system. For a more detailed assessment of carbon dioxide transformation, the installation ensures complete isolation of the leaf and underground parts of plants. A foxglove tree (Paulownia) seedling weighing 7.47 g was used to test the installation; its formed roots were immersed in river sand enriched with a solution of nitroammophoska ( NPK 16:16:16). For 30 days, the iMK LoRa measuring system recorded the absorption and emission of CO₂ in two zones of the installation every 5 minutes. The model experiment showed that the plant is able to continue its development and growth in the absence of an external source of carbon dioxide, and biomass (+111.8%) is formed due to the mechanism of root carbon nutrition. In this case, soil carbon partially (76.4%) goes into the atmosphere as a result of plant respiration and is again absorbed in the light phase, thereby providing a “small carbon cycle”. Another part of the soil carbon (23.6%) takes direct part in the formation of plant biomass, bypassing the transformation through foliation. The proposed installation can identify the features of carbon nutrition modes of various agricultural crops for further selection of means and agrotechnical methods for biomass regulation.

Fast diagnostics of the compliance of the actual composition of concentrated compound feeds to the prescribed one is one of the topical issues of the modern market of compound feed production. The article examines the efficiency of diagnosing the compound feed by spectroscopy of visible and near infrared radiation and identifies informative spectral ranges of the fast diagnosing of compound feeds. The reflection and absorption spectra in the near infrared range weremeasured using the Foss NIRS2500 instrument (Foss, Denmark). We measured spectral absorption characteristics in the range between 0.4 and 2.5 μm of four-component mixed fodder and its components – corn stillage, rapeseed meal, beet pulp, and ground corn. It has been found that the calculated integral absorption coefficients of mixed fodder and its components in the range between 0.4 and 2.5 μm, differ and are statistically reliable. The studies have revealed influence of fractional composition of components on the accuracy of measurement of optical parameters. The incompliance of compound feeds with the prescribed formulation can be revealed by comparing the spectral characteristics of compound feeds and fiber. Comparison of absorption spectra of fiber, four-component mixed fodder and two-component mixed fodder from corn and barley revealed that the greatest difference in the absorption properties of individual components of compound feed is observed either in the short-wave range of 0.4 to 1.2 microns, or in the range above 1.65 microns. At the same time, the characteristics of α(λ) in the shortwave range are less systemic, which requires the allocation of narrower spectral intervals, for example, 0.40 to 0.54 or 1.13 to 1.22 microns. The difference in the spectral absorbing properties of various compound feeds is most evident in the short-wavelength region (λ<1.36 microns). For fiber, the greatest difference is in the area of less than 800 nm. The presented results may serve as a theoretical basis for the development and production of an optical instrument base for quality diagnostics for compliance with the prescribed formulation and component composition of concentrated compound feeds used in animal husbandry.

The most complex and impossible to automate process in the digital system designing is software development, which takes up 85 to 95% of the total labor intensity. The article discussed the development of software for implementing a low-cost wireless temperature monitoring system using unlicensed ISM (“industrial, scientific and medical”) radio frequency bands. The proposal is to use a bottom-up programming algorithm, which reduces the entry threshold for acquiring knowledge in the field of structured programming. The authors provide examples of simple testing of software modules using the Arduino IDE. The authors have developed experimental samples of the transmitting and receiving subsystems necessary for software development, debugging and research. The hardware is based on the Arduino platform, NRF24L01+PA+LNA transceivers and DS18B20 digital temperature sensors. The data exchange radius between the transmitting and receiving subsystems in line-of-sight conditions with a maximum transmitter power and a data transfer rate of 250 Kbit/s was between 800 and 900 m. When transmitting eight bytes of useful data, i.e. the current temperature of two sensors with an interval of one second, the average current consumed by the transmitting subsystem was 22 mA.

The unmanned aerial vehicle is effective in monitoring cultivated areas, plant protection activities and animal observation. In contrast to other aircrafts, an unmanned micro-airship can perform a long flight with low energy consumption. The disadvantages of micro-airships include their bulky design, dependence of lift force on the engine operation modes, and small descent speed. The authors conducted research to improve the design of a micro-airship. The list of measures includes reducing the mass of the lift generation system, increasing the energy efficiency of the airship and the reliability of solar batteries, ensuring vertical maneuvering through increasing energy-saving and decreasing in temperature of helium, excluding the dependence of the operability of the lift generation system on the operation mode of the horizontal movement engine, as well as reducing the inertia of lift generation. It is proposed to place photovoltaic elements on the outer surface of the shell above the equatorial line of the micro-airship and use them with accumulators as elements of the system of creating the lifting force. The article presents an algorithm for automatic control of energy flows on the micro-airship. The authors’ idea is to place thermoelectric converters providing heating or cooling of helium on the inner surface of the shell. The article also highlights the principle of reversing the polarity of the supplied voltage in accordance with the operator’s instruction and the temperature between photovoltaic elements and thermoelectric converters. The authors have found that it is possible to prevent overheating of photovoltaic elements at high illumination and significant current consumption due to the effect of thermal energy transfer by thermoelectric converters. The energy-saving effect is achieved by using electric power exclusively to drive the horizontal motion propeller and to ensure the transfer of thermal energy by thermoelectric converters.

The national goal of achieving a sustainable and dynamic economy for the system of higher agricultural education primarily relates to the human resource supply of the agro-industrial sector. Today, the agro-industrial sector of our country needs new-breed workforce, possessing unique skills and competencies, as well as high creative potential. This, of course, requires revision of strategic guidelines for the development and improvement of the system of continuous training of workforce for agriculture related to the priority development areas of the national agro-industrial sector. The aim of the study is to identify strategic guidelines for the development of agricultural education in Russia in the context of achieving technological sovereignty of the country. In 2023-2024, Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy carried out targeted work to identify strategic benchmarks for the development of agrarian education. This task was accomplished by the expert community using the method of expert assessments, surveys, brainstorming, foresight analysis and generalization. About 180 leading scientists of Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy and external experts took part in the discussion. The foresight case showed that the strategic objectives set by Russian agrarian universities in the field of educational policy correlate with the aim to ensure variability and flexibility in the training of agricultural specialists, changes in the content of training programs, strengthening their scientific component, improving teaching techniques and the whole system of continuous agrarian education, as well as promoting agricultural careers. As a result, the research team has identified seven groups of strategic objectives for the development of agrarian education in Russia.