Cost of boundary manoeuvres in sugarcane production

• Values are derived that characterise the efficiency of field work.
• Turns (e.g. P-turns) and their impact are clarified and dimensioned.
• Cost of a manoeuvres compromises profitability depending on length and row yield.
• Size of vehicles can influence the final overall costs.
• To increase efficiency, use longer rows and neglect the width of roads.

Machinery has direct and indirect costs associated with their work in field, with non-productive time spent in manoeuvres when machinery reaches field borders. Much work has been carried reducing the number of manoeuvres in complex field shapes and changing the type of manoeuvre in order to speed them up. Biofuel producing crops such as sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) besides requiring economic profitability demand positive energy output in their production chain. Sugarcane uses narrow width equipment which requires time-costly manoeuvres adding significant inputs particularly on short rows. Using a method and calculations that is applicable for other crops, this study takes operational, spatial, economic, and energy factors into account to observe the impact of manoeuvres at the headland of a sugarcane crop. Energy and economic costs were retrieved from the hourly use of machines for four main field operations and their respective manoeuvring costs. Crop parameters were retrieved with their data compared with operational costs to establish the dimensions of row-length benefits. Increases in row length and width has decreasing benefits that may conflict with the logistics of servicing auxiliary units. The impacts of turning patterns were obtained, it suggests changes to minimise time and space for manoeuvring in planting and cultivating operations, and using wider roads and more steerable carriers in harvesting operations. In standard scenarios of a production system it was found that the income from row lengths less than 50 m were less than the economic costs occurred in turning at the headland.

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