Abstract

PALACIOS-VELEZ, Oscar L.; MEJIA-SAENZ, Enrique; PINON-SOSA, Luis  and  SANCHEZ-HERNANDEZ, Hugo. Sugar cane cut-to-crush delay: a case study in three sugar mills of México. Agrociencia [online]. 2011, vol.45, n.7, pp.831-847. ISSN 2521-9766.

Sugarcane cut-to-crush delay is the time lapse between cutting and reception in the sugar mills. It is important to reduce this time to avoid loss of sucrose. Therefore, this study was conducted during the 2007-2008 harvest in three Mexican sugar mills: Zacatepec, Morelos; Casimiro Castillo, Jalisco; and Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí. Information on the date and hour of truck entry and exit, origin of the sugar cane, truck identity, etc., was collected; this was complemented with interviews to truckers and truck counting. A mathematical model was developed to analyze the influence of several factors that affect cut-to-crush delay. It was established that: 1) the time between burning, cutting and pickup was the most important time component in cut-to-crush delay (14.7 to 22.23 h, or 67 to 84 %); 2) the second most important component was the waiting time at the mill (2.94 to 10.02 h, or 12 to 30 %); 3) transport to the mill had the least influence (0.76 to 1.25 h, or 2.3 to 5.84 %); 4) in the fields where cutting is mechanized and the cane leaves were not burned off, delay time was approximately half that in the fields where cutting was done manually; 5) the number of vehicles is excessive, that is, the number of trips made by each truck is very small (0.8 to 1.63 trips d^-1), which translates into paltry incomes for the truckers.

Keywords : cut-to-crush delay; cutting to milling time; mechanized cutting; transport system.