Sugar Cane: Hard Work, Sweet Result

On the southwest shore of Florida’s giant Lake Okeechobee, U.S. Sugar grows cane on as much as 200,000 acres in a given year. Based in Clewiston, the company processes every bit of its harvest into granulated sugar, molasses and liquid sweetener, all at one plant.

That harvest is meticulously planned, because it has to be. Unlike corn, soybeans or wheat, which can be safely stored for months, sugar cane needs to be processed within 7.5 hours from the time it is cut.

As a result, U.S. Sugar’s cane harvest is timed to cut just enough cane to supply a steady stream of product to be processed without delay. Harvest, which generally begins in October, will continue well into April and runs 24 hours per day, weather permitting.

With such logistical demands, the company, like any agricultural operation, picks its partners carefully. This past year, U.S. Sugar, along with one of its contractors, Glades Planting LLC, used no fewer than 52 tractors from AGCO to help put sweetener on tables worldwide. Between last October into this coming April, U.S. Sugar leased 20 MF7622s that will haul heavy wagons loaded with sugar cane from the fields to rail car elevator collections points.

“When you look at our operation, we put 3,500 hours on a tractor in a season,” says Heather Banky, managing director of grower relations, fleet & special projects. “You don’t see that happen in three or four years in other businesses.

U.S. Sugar is on its second year using the MF7622. The reviews are glowing. “They pull really well,” says Juan Cervera, U.S. Sugar’s harvest operations manager. “They pull better than the John Deeres of the same size. The operators like them. They are comfortable.”

Glades Planting contracts with U.S. Sugar to plant cane, spray crop-protection chemicals and apply fertilizer. In 2015 they leased eight MF5612s, eight MF5613s, and 16 Challenger® MT465B tractors. Like U.S. Sugar, they leased the machinery from Kelly Tractor in Clewiston.

“The biggest thing is to be able to support the tractor,” says Trey Dyess, co-owner of Glade Planting. “And we have to say Kelly Tractor does a really good job.” Dyess and partners also own two of AGCO’s RoGator® sprayers, an RG1100 and an RG900.

U.S. Sugar depends on Kelly as well and, as with Glades, the commitment from Kelly Tractor is solid. “They have to be running all the time,” says Clayton Jones of Kelly Tractor. “Any downtime is expensive. They depend on our parts department, and we stay pretty stocked up. We are on call 24 hours per day.”

For more, see http://www.myfarmlife.com/features/sugar-cane-hard-work-sweet-result/.