Effect of Dry-off Period and Crushing and Extracting Delays on Sugarcane Quality and Productivity

Abstract

In sugarcane production, the costs of harvesting and transporting the crop account for a large proportion of cost. To ensure sustainability of the industry, it is of vital that performance in the harvesting and transporting processes be optimized so as to reduce the cost to a minimum. These experiments were carried out at Sennar Sugar factory to show the effect of dry-off period and time lag between cutting and crushing of cane on sugarcane quality. Four dry-off period treatments were selected namely, two-, three-, four-, five- and six-week dry-off periods. The time lag was selected to be 24, 48 and 72 hours after cutting. The measured parameters were percentages of weight loss, pol, brix, purity, fiber content and sugar recovery. Analysis showed that there is high significant effect of delay in cane crushing on these parameters. From the results it can be stated that it is necessary that cane cutting, transporting and crushing periods should be kept to the minimum. Cane supply system should be highly effective to minimize losses.