Cane Quality Management
CANE QUALITY MANAGEMENT
In the South African sugarcane industry, recoverable value percent cane (RV%) is used for cane payment purposes and determined in cane consignments delivered to the mill. Various factors can impact cane quality, including climate, variety choice, crop nutrition, pest and diseases, flowering, lodging, drying-off, chemical ripeners, harvest practices (e.g., topping height and green cane harvesting), harvest scheduling and post-harvest cane deterioration.
Information and recommendations relating to cane quality management can be found in the publications and other resources listed below.
Information Sheets
- 4.1 Cane Quality Management under the RV Cane Payment System
- 4.2 Nutrient management and cane quality
- 4.3 Flowering and pithing in sugarcane
- 4.5 Managing deterioration losses in cane quality between harvesting and crushing
- 4.6 Principles underlying chemical ripening and late-season quality maintenance
- 4.7 Determining crop maturity for purposes of cane quality management
- 4.8 Registered chemicals for cane quality management ETHEPHON (and other trade names)
- 4.9 Registered chemicals for cane quality management FUSILADE FORTE (and other trade names)
- 4.10 Registered chemicals for cane quality management MODDUS (and other trade names)
- Agricultural remedies registered for use in South Africa
RIPENER TRIAL SUMMARIES
SASRI has been conducting Variety Evaluation Trials for decades. These trials test the reponse of selected varieties to certain ripener treatments in order to assist the grower community with chemical ripener decision-making.
ILLUSTRATIVE GUIDES
Decision Support Systems
PurEst®
PurEst® is a smartphone application that estimates whole-stalk juice purity from Brix% readings taken with a hand-held refractometer. PurEst® provides practical cane quality management recommendations based on the known juice purity efficacy thresholds of the various ripener chemicals. PurEst® can also assist with harvesting decisions by estimating RV% and stalk moisture, which enables growers to prioritise fields according to harvest readiness.
For more information, see our information sheet: 4.7 Determining crop maturity for purposes of cane quality management.
To access PurEst®, download the application from the Google Play Store or the i-Store.
RESEARCH
Research in cane quality management focuses on the development of knowledge, technologies and resources to enable and demonstrate effective sugarcane cane quality management practices in the industry. See CROP PERFORMANCE AND MANAGEMENT for more information.
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