SCHLOT Live: changing the harvesting game with real-time cane-loss monitoring

SCHLOT Live is a real-time cane-loss quantification system for sugarcane harvesters, making this information available to both the operator and other value-chain stakeholders. SCHLOT Live measures the net power consumption of the extractor fans as they “process” the extracted trash and billets and utilises embedded algorithms, other measured parameters and relevant operator inputs to derive a commercially viable estimate of cane loss under widely varying harvesting and field conditions. SCHLOT Live is a major development as, despite the significant cost to industry of harvesting cane losses, there was no way of quantifying these within a useable timeframe, and, therefore, no way to properly manage these losses. While harvesting cane-loss generally increases with harvester extractor speed, the influence of the actual operating and environmental factors can be of equal or greater magnitude. These losses typically range from 5-15% of the harvested crop, although losses can be much higher than this, particularly under difficult harvesting conditions or where delivery of clean cane is considered a priority. Importantly, most of the loss is “invisible” as the sugarcane billets that are drawn through the extractor fans are effectively disintegrated into juice and particles near-invisible to the naked eye. For this reason, assessing visible losses in the extracted trash is not a competent methodology by which to assess actual harvesting losses, despite still being widely used both commercially and by researchers. SCHLOT Live allows the operator to fine-tune the harvesting settings to reduce cane losses, usually with little change in extraneous matter levels in the delivered product. Experience has been that the total value of the reductions in cane loss will often recoup the cost of the unit in < 100 hours of harvesting, with indications also of the changed operating practices resulting in improved quality of the product delivered to the mill. Key words Sugarcane harvesting, cane loss, extraneous matter, extractor, optimisation, harvest best practice