Cost of boundary manoeuvres in sugarcane production

Autor(es)

Spekken, Mark ^[1] ; Molin, Jose P. ^[2] ; Romanelli, Thiago L. ^[2]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Grad Program Engn Agr Syst, BR-05508 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Dept Biosyst Engn, BR-05508 Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING; v. 129, p. 112-126, JAN 2015.
• Citações Web of Science: 8

Resumo

Machinery has direct and indirect costs associated with their work in field, with nonproductive 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. (C) 2014 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 12/07958-2 - Otimizando percursos para máquinas em talhões agrícolas
• Beneficiário: Mark Spekken
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado