MODELLING THE SUGARCANE VALUE CHAIN: A REAL TIME DECISION MAKING TOOL

WHILE READILY ABLE to account for cash costs in the harvest and transport links of the sugarcane value chain, the Australian industry does not currently have any way of evaluating the impact on industry value of these operations. The harvesting sector is generally compensated for tonnes harvested, without consideration to either cane quality or recovery of pre harvest cane. Growers are compensated for product supplied to the mill based on tonnage and sugar content as determined by the CCS formula, which can be shown to over-estimate actual recoverable sugar under conditions of high extraneous matter in the milled product. Significant previous work in Australia and internationally has generated datasets which correlate harvester operation and sugar recovery, however this work generally focussed only on a single ‘relationship’. There has been limited work in the development of more sophisticated models which evaluate the impact of multiple factors on the value chain. Published work on harvesting losses and the impact of cane quality on mill recovery, as well as our research on harvesting losses has been used to develop a sophisticated ‘harvest and sugar recovery value chain’ model. This model has been used by the Australian industry and international clients, and has now been developed into The Sugarcane Harvesting and Logistics Optimisation Tool (SCHLOT), a web-based multi-parametric mathematical model. SCHLOT takes physical and agronomic properties of the crop, field configuration and transport systems, harvester configuration and operation and both harvester and grower payment systems. This information is used to derive probable cane yield, composition and quality, and financial implications along the entire value chain in order to estimate final sugar, molasses and bagasse production as well as financial performance of each sector. The impact of each ‘phase’ on direct costs and crop value is considered, allowing users to balance direct costs against value destruction. At the field level, this allows a harvesting operating strategy to be agreed prior to harvest which results in the highest net return, with consideration to ‘starting’ value, loss of value and direct costs. At the Industry level, the tool allows the impact on all stakeholders of both harvesting practices and harvest payment systems to be evaluated.