Electronic logbook for harvest record keeping : SRDC Grower Group Innovation Project final report

Abstract

The main project aims were to develop an electronic harvester logging system that would be user friendly and reduce the requirements for manual entry of data. The information collected was then collated and reported to the grower so that his/her farm could be bench marked against the rest of the group. The project also aimed to provide an alternative to the current fleet logging systems developed for transport or mining industries and adapted to the sugar industry. Other project aims included the initial steps in the development of parameters for the adoption of differential pricing for harvesting and/or pricing that was linked to harvest performance. The essence of the project was to take a manual system of recording data via log books and converting to an electronic form. This involved the utilising personal digital appliances (PDA-small hand-held computers), developing software for the PDA and base computer to collect and store logged information. The information was then collated and presented to each grower in the group. Overall the project was a success. The use of personal PDA and/or mini computers as a substitute for paper based logbooks is feasible. However the technology does have constraints. Primarily there is still a reliance on human input of data. This task, while less onerous when utilising electronic means for recording data, still requires valuable operator time to complete and is prone to error. The system developed also relied on a physical connection between the PDA and the base computer for data transfer. Improvements in technology now permit the use of PDA/mobile phone hybrids to download this information automatically. Other aims of the project that were not realised were linking to Tully Sugar Limited (TSL) systems to obtain grower data on the tonnes cut and quality measurements for the cane supplied. Whilst technically possible the current data structures at TSL don’t provided for easy external access by third parties. There is also privacy issues involved in accessing this data. These constraints did not allow harvest performance per block to be reported to growers. Data was collected on the field conditions at the time of harvest. This information was then matched to corresponding NIR measured quality parameters for the cane supplied. There appears to be a link between the quality of the cane supply and field conditions at the time of harvest. This result must be qualified with fact that the field condition observations were subjective and the data set was relatively small. However the effect of the field conditions on cane quality should be explored to try to determine these effects as this will become critical in the development and application of performance based payment for harvesting linked to cane quality outcomes.