A new method for testing cane harvester performance

Testing of cane harvester performance in the field is very labour intensive and accuracy is often limited by variability in crop condition. Cane losses were assessed by collecting material left in the field after passage of the harvester. The accuracy of trials was limited by difficulty in recovering finer material thrown out by the harvester cleaning system. In later tests, cane losses were assessed by harvesting individual cane rows with and without cleaning components operating. Following this series of trials, it was decided to develop a test facility at Bundaberg in cooperation with harvester manufacturers, in order to carry out more precise testing and adjustment of harvester cleaning systems. This paper reports early results from the test facility.