An investigation into the feeding of lodged green cane by harvesters

A better understanding of the interactions between the harvester and the feeding of lodged green cane will allow the development of improved harvester designs for handling these crop conditions while minimising damage to both the cane and the stool. A late model Austoft 7000 was selected as being the industry standard harvester and was instrumented with video cameras to capture the interaction between the machine and the cane. A real time data acquisition system was used to simultaneously analyse loadings on key machine components. To enhance the knowledge base on the way lodged cane interacts with alternative concepts of harvester feeding, a prototype machine developed by Massey Ferguson in the late 1970s (the MF 405) was also equipped with similar video and data acquisition hardware and incorporated into the trial program. The results of the trials highlight the fundamental differences in the two machine concepts with neither design, as tested, offering a complete solution to the problems of feeding of heavy crops of lodged green cane. Mechanisms involved in the feeding of lodged green cane and their effect on the evenness of feed were identified. The research data indicate there is significant potential to enhance the performance of current harvesters by redesigning the way the machine interacts with txhe crop during the gathering and feeding processes.