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Agriculture
Volume 15
Issue 16
10.3390/agriculture15161759
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This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

Structural Improvement of Sugarcane Harvester for Reducing Field Loss When Harvesting Lodged Canes

by
Jiaoli Jiang
1,
Xueting Han
2,
Qingting Liu
2,*,
Hai Xu
2,
Tao Wu
2,
Jiamo Feng
2,
Xiaoping Zou
2 and
Yuejin Li
2
1
Guangdong Province Agricultural Technology Extension Center, Guangzhou 510515, China
2
School of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Agriculture 2025, 15(16), 1759; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15161759 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 25 June 2025 / Revised: 12 August 2025 / Accepted: 13 August 2025 / Published: 16 August 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Design and Application of Modern Agricultural Machinery Systems in Cropping Systems)
Versions Notes

Abstract

Sugarcane, a key sugar crop in China, is predominantly manually harvested. In the main sugarcane-producing areas of China, typhoons cause canes to become lodged, resulting in high field losses and low harvesting efficiency. This study aimed to reduce these losses by analyzing the causes: ineffective stalk pickup, transfer, and conveyance. The tests showed the stalk–steel static friction coefficient (SFC) was lower than the stalk–soil SFC. Conventional basecutters use raised patterns to enhance friction, but soil adhesion makes them ineffective, hindering lodged stalk pickup. Bent stalks also struggle to enter butt lift rollers or pass through roller trains, increasing losses. The proposed improvements included adding toothed plates on the cutter discs, optimized disc–roller positioning, and using fewer rollers (one butt lift and one feed roller pair). Theoretical analysis confirmed the toothed plates improved pickup via grabbing force, while using fewer rollers stopped the stalks detaching from and blocking the roller train. A prototype was tested via orthogonal experiments, showing a field loss ratio of 1.21%, a feed rate of 13.09 kg/s, and a billet qualification rate of 95.82% with optimal settings (chopper speed: 390 rpm; 10 stalks/group; roller speed: 230 rpm; ground speed: 1.41 m/s). Field tests achieved 2.0% loss, demonstrating effectiveness for severely lodged cane, a significant improvement over the conventional harvesters (15–20% loss). These findings aid low-loss-level harvester development.
Keywords: lodged sugarcane; chopper harvester; field loss ratio of harvesting; structural improvements lodged sugarcane; chopper harvester; field loss ratio of harvesting; structural improvements

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Jiang, J.; Han, X.; Liu, Q.; Xu, H.; Wu, T.; Feng, J.; Zou, X.; Li, Y. Structural Improvement of Sugarcane Harvester for Reducing Field Loss When Harvesting Lodged Canes. Agriculture 2025, 15, 1759. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15161759

AMA Style

Jiang J, Han X, Liu Q, Xu H, Wu T, Feng J, Zou X, Li Y. Structural Improvement of Sugarcane Harvester for Reducing Field Loss When Harvesting Lodged Canes. Agriculture. 2025; 15(16):1759. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15161759

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jiang, Jiaoli, Xueting Han, Qingting Liu, Hai Xu, Tao Wu, Jiamo Feng, Xiaoping Zou, and Yuejin Li. 2025. "Structural Improvement of Sugarcane Harvester for Reducing Field Loss When Harvesting Lodged Canes" Agriculture 15, no. 16: 1759. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15161759

APA Style

Jiang, J., Han, X., Liu, Q., Xu, H., Wu, T., Feng, J., Zou, X., & Li, Y. (2025). Structural Improvement of Sugarcane Harvester for Reducing Field Loss When Harvesting Lodged Canes. Agriculture, 15(16), 1759. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15161759

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