Austoft 7000 Harvester

Austoft 7000 Harvester The Austoft 7000 harvester is a chopper harvester with a cleaning system. This harvester is used to cut green cane (with leaves). It cuts one row of cane at a time.  The cane is fed between the crop dividers and cut at the root zone by base cutter blades. The cane is then fed through the roller train and is cut by the chopper drums into small cane pieces of 10 to 12". It is then cleaned in the primary extractor before being conveyed on the elevator. It is then cleaned again with the secondary extractor and loaded onto a vehicle for transportation. In ideal conditions, the harvester can cut nearly 400 tonnes of sugarcane per day.

Articulated Infield Cane Transport

Articulated Infield Cane Transport specially made for India by Sakthi Sugars Ltd., Tractor (70 HP)

Benefits of Using Mechanical Harvesters:

Benefits for the farmers:

• Large areas could be harvested in a single day.
• While manual harvesting leaves about three to four inches of cane in the ground, the mechanical harvester can cut the crop 1" below the ground level, giving an additional yield of about one to two nodes of cane. This results in a higher yield and recovery of sugar.
• The crop is cut evently, avoiding the operation of stubble shaving, resulting in cost savings for the farmers.
• The entire operation is done by two operators for the harvesters, three for the transporter, one mechanic and a supervisor. This results in saving in labour as normallly about 600 labourers are needed to harvest 400 tonnes in a single day.
• The cane can be delivered to the factory within 1 to 2 hours of harvest, which avoids weight loss and sucrose inversion.

Field preparation for 5 feet planting

5 feet planting

Dressed cane loaded onto  a vehicle

Benefits for the factory:

• The feeding of the cane to factory can be maintained at a uniform rate, in manual harvest, the cane is cut in the morning dressed and loaded during the afternoon and transported to the factory in the evening. This result in heavy cane accumulation in the evenings, which is normally cleared during next day morning. The mechanical harvesting can be done for twenty hours of the day and cane can be supplied to the factroy within two hours from the cutting time. This will enable fresh cane supply to the factory.
• The feeding of cane to factory need  not depend on the availability of labour. Even in summer and festival season the cane crush can be maintained at a uniform rate.
• The number of trucks can be reduced at least by 40%. This is due to higher tonnage being handled by trucks. This leads to reduced transport costs.
• The crushing season can be shortened with results in improvement of  average recovery of sugar recovery.