Farming systems and production management

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://elibrary2.sugarresearch.com.au/handle/11079/13844

Research outcomes: Growers and harvesters benefit from the ongoing research in productivity improvement, production management and agronomical techniques. Developed technologies and management practices that enhance productivity and demonstrate a high rate of return on investment.

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1999 - 199922000 - 20105

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Author: search.filters.author.Davis, RJHas files: Yes

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Review, analysis and discussion of precision agriculture technologies : SRDC Final report NCA009
    (2007) Davis, RJ; Schmidt, EJ
    The development of a range of new technologies has brought agriculture and agricultural equipment to a whole new level of sophistication. First hypothesised in the early 1990’s, Precision Agriculture (PA) is a crop management philosophy, which utilises these technologies to produce crops in a more sustainable fashion. The Australian sugar industry is faced with a long term trend of reducing value of production and increasing input costs. The industry has rapidly adopted GPS based guidance technology with many cane growers now having access to high precision GPS technologies. However, there remains a wide range of uncertainties and conflicting opinions that make the next step for PA a daunting prospect for cane growers, therefore the adoption of PA has been slow. PA has gained a significant amount of publicity in recent years, especially in other farming systems such as cotton, grain growing and viticulture. There has been a flood of rapidly developing technologies and techniques (often very costly) that have confronted growers claiming to aid in all aspects of farm management. With a few notable exceptions, PA is still a relatively new concept in the sugar industry. However, it will happen in the sugar industry. PA technologies have the potential to improve the commercial viability and environmental sustainability of sugarcane production and harvesting. To a degree, PA, within the sugar industry has been driven by the advent of various new technologies, particularly the coupling of real-time positioning using global positioning systems (GPS). The rapid adoption of GPS guidance and tractor steering technology and the direct benefits of reduced overlap and increased productivity have made cane growers acutely aware of the potential benefits of new technologies. With the initial adoption of these technologies, cane growers are seeing the benefits of more efficient operations with some cane growers claiming that they have halved their labour requirements. There is thus an urgent need to increase knowledge of PA across the industry to ensure that adoption decisions are made on an informed basis that learns from other agricultural industries both domestically and internationally.
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    A review of opportunities to improve the design and performance of sugarcane harvesters
    (2010) Davis, RJ; Whiteing, C; Norris, CP
    This review is a response to the recognition by the SRDC that the Australian sugarcane industry needs an informed basis from which to make decisions as to appropriate investments in harvesting sector research. There is a renewed interest at a grower and regional level for improved harvester designs and harvesting practices. SRDC continues to receive requests from industry to support sugarcane harvester research and development. This review looks at component research on the Australian type ‘chopped cane’ sugarcane harvester, harvesting performance and harvest and transport system analysis undertaken in Australia and overseas and considers the benefits delivered. Opportunities to improve the design and performance and reduce the costs of sugarcane harvesting along with recommendations for further research, development and extension to facilitate productive and profitable adoption are identified. It is concluded that ‘chopped cane’ harvester and harvesting performance research has delivered significant direct and indirect benefits to the Australian sugar industry and a number of key examples are highlighted to demonstrate these benefits.
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    Sustaining un-burnt production systems in cool wet environments : SRDC Final report BSS168
    (2002) Kingston, G; Davis, RJ; Parsons, D; Chapman, FL; Aitken, RL; Nielsen, PJ
    This project was initiated because the Green Cane Trash Blanket (GCTB) system had been rapidly adopted within tropical districts of the Queensland sugar industry between 1984 and 1990, yet there was minimal adoption in the cool and humid districts in northern NSW. Broad adoption in the tropics was interpreted by the community as a signal that the GCTB system was suitable for the whole of the Australian sugar industry; this was particularly the case in northern NSW where there is a high reliance on the tourist industry, with an little tolerance of the ash and smoke fall-out associated with the burnt-cane system. Additionally this region has a significant non-cane affiliated population, which is also non-sympathetic to the issues associated with the pre-harvest burning of sugarcane.
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    Commercialisation of lightweight elevator and advanced secondary cleaning system for sugarcane harvesters : Final report BSS251
    (2002) Davis, RJ; Norris, CP
    The Australian sugar industry is facing the challenge of increasing extraneous matter (EM), depression of ccs, sugar quality issues, and increasing harvesting and transport costs per tonne of final product. In addition, Likewise, cane loss remains a major background issue. Leslie and Wilson (1996) identified EM as a major contributor to the depression of ccs in the northern canegrowing regions. If low EM is seen as paramount by the industry, either cleaning the cane at the mill in dedicated cleaning plants, or improved performance of cleaning systems on harvesters, is required.Improving the performance of harvester cleaning systems is not easy because a number of fundamental problems exist. Rational review of the function of trash removal from a stream of billets and trash, particularly under wet trash conditions, indicates that effective cleaning is extremely difficult to achieve in one pass through any cleaning system. This is due because tof the interactions between the leaf material and billets of cane.The goal of this project was to development of a pre-production prototype lightweight harvester elevator and integrated secondary cleaning system. The project was commercially driven and built on the knowledge gained from the SRDC-funded project BSS210 in which h. The application of high-speed conveyor technology and advanced pneumatic cleaning concepts were integrated into a cane harvester. The design criteria targeted enhanced machine performance through reduced cane loss and EM, whilst reducing machine weight and improving machine stability.
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    Development of a trash rake : SRDC Final report BS144S
    (1999) Davis, RJ; Chapman, FL
    Objectives of project were: to evaluate the performance of selected commercial rakes under various field conditions; to assess the ratooning vigour of varieties after raking trash from the stool area; to develop an improved trash rake to remove trash from the stool; to disseminate information derived from this project to the industry via publications and extension programs and enable demonstrations of trash raking.