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Harvesting costs may be apportioned in various ways, per tonne of cane, per hectare, or per hour.
Traditionally, costs are quoted in dollars per tonne of cane harvested. However, in reality, harvesting
costs are largely incurred by the hour:
• Machinery depreciates by the hour
• Harvesters and haul tractors have a useful life of 10 000 hours
• Wages are an hourly rate (or equivalent value)
• Fuel is consumed at a fixed hourly rate
• Repairs and maintenance costs are incurred by the hour.
The typical price for various mill regions is shown in Table 2.12 and is inclusive of harvester and
haulouts. However, throughout the industry there are allowances such as overtime ($0.93/tonne) and
haulage (cost dependent on distance from siding) up to $0.40/tonne which are paid by the mill to the
harvesting contractors or direct to the grower depending on harvesting payment arrangements.
Table 2.12 Cost of sugarcane harvesting
Crop
Condition
NSW Bundaberg Ingham Burdekin
Flat Rate Base Rate +
Fuel
Flat Rate Flat Rate Flat Rate
$/t $/t $/t $/t $/t
Co-operative Co-operative Contractor Contractor
Burnt 5.50 5.80 - 7.10-7.40
Green 5.80-6.00** 4.00 + 1.00/L 6.80 6.80 -
*Co-operative structure and 2-yr-old cane
**Co-operative structure
The cost of harvesting (charged to the grower) has not increased much over the past 10 years. Data
from SRDC (2004) shows that in 2002/2003 the cost of harvesting was about $6.80/tonne as shown in
Table 2.13. Current costs are in the order of $10 per tonne, slightly less for NSW.
Table 2.13 Typical costs of sugarcane harvesting (SRDC, 2004)
Cost
$/t Green Cane
Depreciation 1.24
Wages 1.51
Fuel and oil 0.72
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