Rc. Muchow et al., Developing cane supply and harvesting schedules that enhance whole industry profitability, PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONGRESS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN SUGAR TECHNOLOGISTS' ASSOCIATION, 1998, pp. XLII-XLIX
An important question for sugar industries worldwide is, "What opportunitie
s exist for modified cane supply and harvest scheduling arrangements to enh
ance whole industry profitability and competitiveness?" This is a complex i
ssue, especially with vertical and horizontal expansion in production where
consideration of crushing capacity and harvest season length are necessary
. Given this complexity and the need to consider on-farm consequences on pr
oductivity and off-farm constraints related to transport, milling and stora
ge capacity, this paper outlines a research approach to assess the conseque
nces of different harvest scheduling options that integrate across the indu
stry value chain.
The approach has two key features: (i) multidisciplinary research integrati
ng database technology, field experimentation, crop growth simulation model
ling and operations research; and (ii) strong participation from industry (
growers and millers) at all stages of the research process from initiation
to delivery. Through case studies for several locations in the Australian s
ugar industry, it is shown that manipulation of cane supply scheduling offe
rs the potential to substantially increase mill region net revenue by takin
g into account spatial and temporal variation in cane yield parameters.