Effects of two different base cutters in green cane mechanical harvest

It was developed one special base cutter device to be adapted in the regular base cutter place of a standard sugar cane combine harvester. This new base cutter has a mechanism that follows the microslope of the terrain with the proposal of reducing the sugar cane losses and the amount of mineral strange matter (soil) during the harvest operation. This paper will show the results of results of both types of base cutters, with six repetitions each, operating under the same field conditions (variety, slope, soil moisture, distance between rows, etc.) in terms of: gross and net field effective capacities (ton.ha-1); harvest quality (%) which means how much trash (leaves, dry leaves, tops) that comes with the harvested stalks; types of losses (%) divided in whole sugar cane stalks, billet fractions, billets, damage billets and the amount of soil (%) that comes with the harvested material.