In this section cane losses categories namely: attached cane; high cut cane; fallen cane; and low-topping cane for both harvesting systems were estimated and discussed.
The t-test analysis showed that there is no significance difference between the two harvesting systems (manual and mechanical cane harvesting) with regard to the overall infield losses (Cane tone/Faddan) as well as to different cane losses categories with exception of the low-topping cane category.
Manual high-cut cane resulted in cane losses amounted to 0.27 ton/fed (14% of the total system losses and 0.64% of the potential yield) while mechanical harvesting losses were found to be 0.25 ton/fed (13% of the total system losses and 0.55% of the potential yield).
Comparing this result with other findings in Kenana where it was reported that losses due to high cut cane in Kenana estimated to be 3.3% and 2.8% of the potential yield for manual and mechanical harvesting, respectively Mohammed (1995). The reason for the lower losses in this study compared to other studies may be ascribed to an improvement in manual and mechanical harvesting management.
Attached cane represents the long cane left attached to the root system. Mechanical harvesting showed a higher attached cane losses (0.34 ton/fed, 0.8% of the total potential yield) compared to that of manual harvesting (0.12 ton/fed, 0.2% of the total potential yield).
The fallen cane losses represent the highest percent of the total infield losses in both harvesting system where it amount to about 60% of the overall infield losses (Table 7). The manual harvesting showed a higher low topping cane losses (0.41 ton/fed, 21.29% of the total system losses and 1% of the potential yield.) than mechanical harvesting (0.16 ton/fed, 8.69% of the system losses and 0.36% of the potential yield).