A study of cost effective transport systems for mechanically harvested chopped cane in Mauritius
| MSI99P2370 | |
| Rivière, V. Pyneeandee, D. Jacquin, E. | |
| A study of cost effective transport systems for mechanically harvested chopped cane in Mauritius | |
| periodical article | |
| 1996 | |
| Proc. S. Afr. Sug. Technol. Ass. | |
| 70: 87-89 | |
| En | |
| En | |
| The transport of sugarcane from the field to the mill represents a substantial proportion of the costs of cane production. With the introduction of chopper harvesters in Mauritius, a major change has been observed in the transport systems used to haul cane. Presently, cane received from chopper harvesters is hauled directly to the mill by infield transport of relatively small capacity, or is transloaded into truck-drawn or tractor-drawn trailers of larger capacity. Choice of transport system on various estates was orginally based mainly on information obtained from other sugar producing countries, without an economic feasibility study beimg carried out. The objective of this study was to determime the shortest distance below which direct delivery is more economical than transloadimg, and subsequently to identify which mode of transloading is more cost effective. Field surveys were conducted to monitor the cycle times associated with the harvesting and transport operations. After optimisation, these parameters were fed into a computer simulation model to generate the number of transport units required to haul the mechanically harvested cane, when the harvested idle time is either zero or 10 percent of a normal ten-hour working day. A cost analysis was used to establish a boundary, defined in kilometers, either side of which represents the economic feasibility of the respective methods. The results obtained using these parameters indicated that direct delivery of green chopped cane has a cost advantage over transloading into outfield transport for distances up to 8-9 kilometers. | |
| SUGARCANE TRANSPORT MECHANIZATION COST EFFECTIVENESS CHOPPED CANE TRANSLOADING DIRECT DELIVERY | |
| MAURITIUS | |
| Sugarcane: Cultural operations | |
| Mechanization | |
| 1997-02-21 | |
| En | |
| LIB | |
| CAT | |
| 1 | |
| MECHAN |