MONITORING THE HARVESTING OF SUGARCANE AND GENERATION OF YIELD MAPS IN REAL TIME

By J.A. CARBONELL, C.A. OSORIO and J.M. RAMÍREZ 

Colombian Sugarcane Research Center, 
CENICAÑA, A.A. 9138, Cali, Colombia, South America

jacarbonell@cenicana.org

Abstract 

IN A GIVEN area or plantation it is common to determine the variability in production that
exists between harvested sugarcane fields or lots.
The agroindustrial sugar sector in the Cauca River Valley of Colombia has
appropriate mechanisms for determining and managing the variability of production among
the cane lots, but it has not had sufficient alternatives for determining the variability within
them.
At present, the preharvest task of cutting the cane is done manually in most of the
area, while the subsequent lifting of the stalks is done with self-driven equipment.
CENICAÑA has developed a system that can beinstalled on the cane lifters, which records

the weight of each bundle and its geographic position.
The data are stored and transmitted by cell phone to a computer where they can be
visualised for carrying out a precise monitoring of the harvest and generating yield maps.
This work describes the structure of the system developed, the methodology for
obtaining and transmitting the data, and how to interpret and analyse the yield maps.
An analysis of a field harvest, for which it is known where there was fertilisation and
where not, shows the value of each weight recorded.
In this case, the best estimate of the production in the field is obtained by averaging
the data from six consecutive bundles.
Both the system for obtaining the data and the methodology for their analyses and the

generation of yield maps can be implemented in other agricultural sectors.

KEYWORDS: Sugarcane, Precision Agriculture, Yield Mapping, 

Wholestalk Weigh System, Harvest Monitoring. 

www.issct.org

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

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