(Above) RGB colour image of cane billets coming into Tully Sugar Mill. (Below) NIR image of cane billets.
MAXIMISING THE VALUE OF A CANE CROP IN A MILLING AREA A
persistent thorny question for both the growing and the milling sectors of the industry has been the economic value lost to a milling area of the amount of ‘rubbish’ (extraneous matter or EM) that is harvested with the cane and sent to the mill for processing.
Why is this figure important?
Cane Matters / Autumn 2022
QUT researcher Ross Broadfoot said high levels of extraneous matter add substantially to the costs of milling operations.
34
This is “because of less cane to process per bin causing reduced crushing rates, delays caused by milling stoppages due to chokes, and consequently extended season lengths,” Ross said. “In addition, EM can reduce the amount of sugar that can be processed from each tonne of cane due to sugar recovery and liquid purity challenges.
“These are impacts that decrease the value of a cane crop to a milling area affecting both miller and grower returns,” he said. “However, up until now it has not been technically possible nor financially feasible to measure the size of the problem. Without being able to measure it the true costs of harvesting EM cannot be determined.” That has changed with a new project presented at the QUT/SRA Regional Milling Research Seminars - On-line measurement of the physical properties of each cane consignment at the factory which has developed a way to measure
the physical properties of individual rakes of cane using equipment costing only about $15,000. The project has drawn on the expertise at Tully Mill where EM is already being manually measured and where millers and growers already take a cooperative approach to managing cane harvesting, transport and milling operations to maximise the value of the cane crop for the district. A camera and lights have been set up by QUT researchers in a strategic position at Tully Mill to take an image every 20 seconds of each bin of cane which has arrived in the mill.
