Structural Improvement of Sugarcane Harvester for Reducing Field Loss When Harvesting Lodged Canes

Jiaoli Jiang, Xueting Han, Qingting Liu (), Hai Xu, Tao Wu, Jiamo Feng, Xiaoping Zou and Yuejin Li
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Jiaoli Jiang: Guangdong Province Agricultural Technology Extension Center, Guangzhou 510515, China
Xueting Han: School of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Qingting Liu: School of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Hai Xu: School of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Tao Wu: School of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Jiamo Feng: School of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Xiaoping Zou: School of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Yuejin Li: School of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 16, 1-30

Abstract: Sugarcane, a key sugar crop in China, is predominantly manually harvested. In the main sugarcane-producing areas of China, typhoons cause canes to become lodged, resulting in high field losses and low harvesting efficiency. This study aimed to reduce these losses by analyzing the causes: ineffective stalk pickup, transfer, and conveyance. The tests showed the stalk–steel static friction coefficient (SFC) was lower than the stalk–soil SFC. Conventional basecutters use raised patterns to enhance friction, but soil adhesion makes them ineffective, hindering lodged stalk pickup. Bent stalks also struggle to enter butt lift rollers or pass through roller trains, increasing losses. The proposed improvements included adding toothed plates on the cutter discs, optimized disc–roller positioning, and using fewer rollers (one butt lift and one feed roller pair). Theoretical analysis confirmed the toothed plates improved pickup via grabbing force, while using fewer rollers stopped the stalks detaching from and blocking the roller train. A prototype was tested via orthogonal experiments, showing a field loss ratio of 1.21%, a feed rate of 13.09 kg/s, and a billet qualification rate of 95.82% with optimal settings (chopper speed: 390 rpm; 10 stalks/group; roller speed: 230 rpm; ground speed: 1.41 m/s). Field tests achieved 2.0% loss, demonstrating effectiveness for severely lodged cane, a significant improvement over the conventional harvesters (15–20% loss). These findings aid low-loss-level harvester development.

Keywords: lodged sugarcane; chopper harvester; field loss ratio of harvesting; structural improvements (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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