Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie and Missouri farmer Kip Cullers give their insights into Brazilian sugar cane production from a field where they are in the process of planting sugar cane.

 

The Brazilian farmers are harvesting the "seed cane" in an adjacent area. Around 20% of every acre of the seed cane field is used to plant an acre for new production. One sugar cane is planted and harvested for six years before replanted into sugar cane or another crop. The seed cane is cut into 8" to 10’ pieces, and every node can produce a stalk. It is spread into a knee-deep furrow with a fertilizer applied when the trench is dug. Then a machine comes through and covers the plant segments and applies an insecticide (to control termites) and a fungicide.

 

Ken and Kip have more: