Quality of sugarcane mechanized planting

Abstract

The quality of the sugarcane plantation affects the plantation longevity, yield and production costs. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of sugarcane mechanized planting in day and night shifts. The mechanized planting was carried out in Ivinhema, MS, Brazil. For the evaluation of pre-planting seedlings, were collected 40 billets in the seedling area with 10 repetitions for each shift. For the other variables, it was held sampling, totaling 60 points, 30 points assessed for each shift. The variables evaluated were: total of natural damage and total of mechanized damage in pre-planting, shoot per meter, viable shoots per meter, total of unviable shoots, seedlings consumption and failures percentage. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and statistical quality control. The attributes showed stable mechanized planting process, that is, with quality, except only for the seedlings consumption and failures for the day shift that presented unstable process or outside the proposed standards to achieve quality. To achieve the specific limits for the number of viable shoots m-1, it is necessary to increase the seedlings consumption, and an alternative would be to start the operators training to align the expected goals and qualify labor.