Farming systems and production management

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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.
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.

Farming systems and production management

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