EFFICIENCY OF MECHANICAL CANE LOADING IN EGYPT

By HASSAN A. ABDEL-MAWLA 
Ag. Eng Dept., Coll. of Agric. Al-Azhar Univ., Assiut
haamawla@yahoo.com

Abstract 

THE CANE growing area along the Nile valley in Upper Egypt has expanded. Most farmer
holdings are small, typically ranging from 0.5 to 1 hectare. Cane delivery schedules and
consequently harvesting dates mainly depend on the delivery allocation and the date of
harvest last season. The mill administration assigns a transport vehicle (main vehicle) for
each farmer according to the schedule. Farmer/s harvest and transport cane from inside field/s
(using tractor-pulled-trailers) to temporary storage sites at which the main vehicle/s are
loaded. Loader efficiency can be low due to time losses associated with travel from one
storage site to another.
To achieve reasonable efficiency of the loader, storage sites may be amalgamated
allowing greater utilisation of loaders. Thisprocedure may increase the infield transport
distance which may reduce the rate of cane supply from fields, thus contributing to increased
cane delivery delay. Farmers may have to transport a part of the main vehicle load to the
storage site the previous day to secure continuous operation of the loader. In this study,
loader efficiency, loading rate, the percentage of main vehicle/s load/s delayed more than
24 h and cane collection efficiency were studied. In most cases, one main vehicle is assigned
to each farmer, where a trailer pulled by tractor is used to transfer cane from inside the field
to the storage area. Results show that total efficiency of the loader was 75% in the case of
loading lorries in a large storage area and 81%in the case of railway wagons loaded at a
station.
Average total efficiency of the loaderwas 61% when loading decauvelle wagons
distributed in several storage areas within the same production region. Efficiency of loading
tractor trailers in the field was 54%. Maximum efficiency was observed to be achieved if the
loader works for the full operational day in one storage area. Cane collection efficiency was
variable for the variable operating conditions. The percent of cane delayed more than 24 h
was also estimated. Large temporary storage areas at which lorries are loaded with cane, and
cane loading stations for railway wagons may represent more optimal conditions for loader
operation. The paper discusses the efficiency ofloader operation under a range of variable
conditions, and related cane delivery delay. The results highlight the role of loader operation
efficiency as a factor determining the adoption of mechanical loading of sugarcane.
Recommendations for the proper operation of a cane loader are suggested.

KEYWORDS: Wholestalk Cane Loading, Cane Loader Efficiency,
Sugarcane Transport Systems, Harvest Scheduling

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Agricultural Engineering                 Proc. Int. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., Vol. 27, 2010