Evaluation of five sugar cane planters

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Brazil is the world biggest producer of sugar cane with an area of 7x10 6 hectares. Mainly the system used for planting is the semi-mechanized one, which consists in opening the furrows with a machine, manually allocating the fractioned stalks and then covering the furrows done by the machines. The great amount of human labor used in the semi-mechanized system is becoming harder to find and also more expensive, indicating the need of a fully mechanized operation. Currently in Brazil these agriculture machines industries offers six different types of fully mechanized sugar cane planters (two types of whole stalks for planting and four using mechanized harvested stalks known as billets). All of them plant in two furrows simultaneously in 1.5 m row spacing. This study analyzed five different machines and the following variables: Working Speed (km h -1 ); Effective Capacity (ha h -1 ), Drawbar Force (kgf), Draw Bar Power (in HP), Fuel Consumption (L h -1 ) and Costs (US$ ha -1 ) comparing them with the semi-mechanized system. This research also characterized the stalks for planting as viable gems number (%), non viable gems number (%) and billet length (m). And lastly the mechanized planting system is cheaper than the conventional one and none of the machines has an adequate mechanism for placing the right amount of sugar cane seed.KEYWORDS: sugar cane; planters; performance, costs. ENSAIOS DE CINCO PLANTADORAS DE CANA-DE-AÇÚCARRESUMO: O Brasil é o maior produtor de cana com área de 7 milhões de hectares. O sistema de plantio mais utilizado é o semimecanizado (sulcação mecânica, distribuição e picamento das mudas manual e cobertura de sulco com máquina). A carência e o custo de mão de obra têm aumentado, mostrando a necessidade de mecanização total da operação. Atualmente a indústria de máquinas oferece seis diferentes modelos de plantadoras (duas de mudas inteiras e quatro de mudas picadas). Todas plantam duas fileiras por vez, no espaçamento de 1,5 m. O estudo analisou as variáveis velocidade efetiva (km h -1 ), capacidade efetiva (ha h -1 ), força de tração na barra (kgf), potência na barra (HP), consumo de combustível (L h -1 ) e custos (US$ ha -1 ), confrontando essas variáveis com o sistema semi-mecanizado. Caracterizaram-se, ainda, as mudas em termos de gemas viáveis (%), não viáveis (%) e comprimento dos rebolos (m). O sistema mecanizado foi mais barato que o semimecanizado. Nenhuma máquina apresentou mecanismo dosador de mudas adequado. PALAVRAS-CHAVE:cana-de-açúcar, plantadoras, desempenho, custos.

Billet metering mechanism of a sugarcane planter

“…The data distribution interquartile range, although within the control limits, exhibits deficient metering mechanisms, which is the greatest challenge to sugarcane planters given the billet size variability (Ripoli and Ripoli, 2010). The authors evaluated five sugarcane planters and observed the same limitation in all machines.…”

Performance Mechanized Set Tractor-Planter of Sugarcane Planting in Two Operation Shifts

“…The hourly fuel consumption in the operation of sugarcane mechanized planting, using a Civemasa billets cutter planter, model PCSA 2/2, being pulled by a tractor of 161 kW and operating at 2.200 rpm, with speed of approximately 5.0 km h -1 , was 40.24 L h -1 according to M. L. C. Rípoli and T. C. C. Rípoli (2010), higher than that obtained in this study, due to the fact the tractor used for this operation have less engine power (136 kW). It was also observed that, if it is compared the two mechanized plantations, and if it is used a tractor with 136 kW engine for this operation, as in this study, it can pull the planter of chopped sugarcane with an hourly fuel consumption of approximately 35% lower than compared to a tractor with 161 kW of engine power.…”

“…Another factor that may be taken into account is that, for day and night operation shifts, there was concentration of points slightly below the average, as can be evidenced by the distribution tails of values in the box plot graphics, and that can be proven by the coefficients of skewness, although at night, the mean was trivially larger than the median. M. L. C. Rípoli and T. C. C. Rípoli (2007) found values of effective consumption of fuel for mechanized planting of sugarcane very close to the present work, using tractors with power of 136 kW, and this being essential for the performance evaluation of operation of mechanized planting of sugarcane, because it can reflect the improvement in production costs through a proper management (Yadav et al, 2003). Kumar and Singh (2012) studied a model of sugarcane planter, khalsa brand, P-603 model, using a tractor with less power and a planter of less mass, operating at a working speed of 1.8 to 2.5 km h -1 , and they reported that the effective fuel consumption was 22 L ha -1 , a situation close to that found in this study, despite the conditions of the tractors and the machines be different.…”

Quality monitoring of billets distribution in mechanised sugarcane planting

“…Labour costs and shortages have increased due to social and environmental policies, indicating the necessity of fully mechanising this operation (Rípoli and Rípoli, 2010;Barros and Milan, 2010). Accordingly, most sugarcane planting operations are labour intensive; therefore, there is an urgent need to introduce the use of machines termed planters, which complete all crop management practices within a single operation (furrowing, fertilisation, distribution of buds, application of agricultural pesticides, and furrow closing and compaction) to increase the sustainability and overall productivity of the sugarcane plantation (Voltarelli et al, 2013).…”