Billet planting of sugarcane is now undertaken in all cane-growing regions of Queensland but the resulting crop establishment is often variable. Billet planters were developed after the widespread adoption of mechanised billet harvesters. Little attention has been given to the quality of the seed material planted and cane planting rates have increased in an attempt to counter poor crop establishment. Planting billets were collected from both standard and modified sugarcane harvesters. The quality ofthese billets was assessed with respect to billet length and billet damage using ISSCT criteria. The results were compared to billets from whole-stalk planters. The whole-stalk planter closely approximates a precision planter in both quality of billets produced and spatial distribution of planted setts. The standard harvester produced billets of variable length with considerable damage. Matching the speeds of the feed train rollers and ensuring the correct speed ratio between roller speed and chopper speed reduced billet length variations and improved billet quality. The use of rubber coated feed train rollers produced further improvement in the billet quality and ensured positive feeding of the cane stalks. Modifications discussed in this paper are becoming widely adopted by planting operators and are seen as a necessary step in the development of an improved sugarcane planting system.
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