Completed projects and reports

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Achieving the world's best practice harvesting and transport costs for the NSW sugar industry
(2007) Beattie, P; Dines, G; Crossley, R; Prestwidge, D; Higgins, A; Laredo, L; Power, A; Sandell, G; Tickle, A
This project set out to develop innovative techniques for cane supply management within the NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative Ltd (NSWSMC), assess and promote harvester group optimisation within the NSW industry and to aim for world’s best practice harvest costs. In his independent assessment of the sugar industry Hildebrand (2002) reported that forecast prices in 2004 - 2006 would create an urgent need for productivity and cost improvements for the industry to remain internationally competitive. Hildebrand also recommended worldwide benchmarking of activities against the strongest competitors followed by implementation of cost effective options. This project concentrated on the largest cost item for cane production; harvesting, to develop innovative techniques for efficiency and cost improvement with the aim of achieving worlds' best practice harvesting costs of $4 per tonne of cane. Additionally harvest and cane supply management are significant milling costs and with the need to reduce unit costs it was essential to find ways to automate harvest management and reduce the workload for NSWSMC Cane Supply Managers at each mill. The NSW sugar industry currently has one of the most efficient cooperative harvesting arrangements and is well positioned to make additional steps to capture additional cost savings across the NSW sugar industry value chain. These economies are essential with the co-generation plans for the NSW industry. Additional costs of whole cane harvesting can be partly offset by the efficiency gains in all mill areas. The project aimed to investigate and implement whole-of-system solutions for reduced costs in the harvesting and transport sectors of the NSW Sugar industry. At the start of the project we were interested in examining scenarios involving changes to harvesting and transport, which include reduced harvesting groups, harvest best practice, optimised/rationalised loading pad locations and automated harvest management. Such changes required a different approach and this project saw excellent collaboration between organisations and agencies involved in sugar industry research and development. Initial stages of the project involved the NSWSMC and Agtrix working together for the implementation of the harvest management system, now called CHOMP. Agtrix and the NSWSMC pioneered the development of this program that is now used widely in the Australian sugar industry. Work with CSIRO and Harvesting Solutions centred on utilising modelling tools developed through other SRDC funded projects like CSE005 to optimise locations of cane loading pads in NSW and to examine efficiencies associated with harvest group amalgamations.
Improved train safety through improved locomotive braking performance : SRDC final report QUT019
(Sugar Research Institute, 2009) McKenzie, NJ; Koppen, DE; McCallum, C; Kent, GA; Plaza, F
The safe operation of the cane railway, in the same way as for mainline railways, is gaining greater attention. One important aspect of safe operation is the ability to stop a train in an acceptable distance (or time). Previous work has measured quite variable braking performance (and hence stopping distance) in an extensive series of tests with different locomotives on different track sections in different mill areas. It was found that the locomotive driver was the most variable factor associated with braking performance. When the driver factor was eliminated through the application of a fixed braking pressure, very consistent braking performance could be achieved. It was concluded that it was the driver’s ability to detect wheel slide and their action to reduce slide that caused the variability in braking performance. It was hypothesised that an anti-lock braking system (ABS), where the driver has little influence on the braking performance, could deliver better average braking performance and hence reduced, or at least more consistent, stopping distances.
A participatory approach towards improving industry sector profits through improved harvesting efficiency : SRDC Final report BSS227
(2002) Agnew, JR
Recent productivity gains through the introduction of high yielding varieties, green cane harvesting, improved drainage and irrigation have resulted in larger, mostly lodged crops with increased suckering. As a result, ccs levels have declined, dirt in supply and extraneous matter levels have increased, and stool damage at harvest is obvious. Growers do not always connect their role in crop presentation to ease of harvest and resultant cane quality. Failure to hill up plant cane adequately and match it to harvester basecutter angle; inconsistent row spacing and lack of attention to farm layout, headlands and haul roads are the main deficiencies. Harvester operators and harvest crews may also have goals conflicting with cane quality and quality of ground job. The standard system of harvester payment, which is based on $/tonne, rewards speed of operation. Stool damage, cane loss and poor billet quality result. The mills? transport limitations and need for continuous supply may impose restrictions on harvesting where by the harvester must deliver a fixed quantity of cane within a short time frame. This can result in poor ground job and higher cane losses (because fan speed is increased in an attempt to achieve cleaning at high pour rates). Short and damaged billets can result from pressure to achieve high pour rates and high bin weights. Encouraging harvesting under wet conditions results in field damage. The viability of the north Queensland sugar industry is in jeopardy. Industry leaders believe there are large productivity and profitability gains to be made by adopting harvesting best practice (HBP).
A management assistance package for optimising harvester; infield transport productivity : SRDC Final report BS124S
(BSES, 1998) Ridge, DR; Powell, J
The two year project to develop a management assistance package for optimising harvester/infield transport productivity was completed during 1997.

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