Sugar Cane Operation

Here are some shots of a cane operation on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. It is most definitely a one-of-a-kind operation with nearly every operating piece modified from original OEM specs.

Thats some cool pics. What kind of machinery is pulling the trailer?

What the track rolled off?


Stock

Wow that's an intriguing operation they have going on there. Excuse my lack of knowledge on this subject, but is this a normal practice in Hawaii? It def. looks like they have some sweet machines kicking around!

It will be the normal practice in the near future by default as the only other producer on the Islands is closing shop. Last I checked, this operation had over 250 pieces of Cat equipment being used to farm approximately 36,000 acres.

That is a nice sized operation then! Have they come up with any other interesting mods for CAT's? I'm loving the dozer. Thanks for sharing the pics!

No other mods that I am aware of are done outside of a few "one offs".

Here's a few more pictures from seven years ago. Of course, this stuff is long gone now.

Tha'ts definitely a new one on me. We don't plant feild that huge of cane so it's a totally different thing. We usually use a modified corn planter to set the seed thenharvest with a picker that ties the cane into bundles. If it's too muddy to harvest like that out come the long knives and bundle stands. most of our cane is turned into molasses and sourghum. I did cook some up a few years ago and then fermented it and ran it through a still. put the stuff in some old whiskey barrels and have three of them sitting in the basement of the cookhouse. That was about four years ago. gonna give one of them a try next year see how my rum has turned out. Little rum trivia... before corn was taxed and farmers far from the coast needed a way to send corn and it's products to market (and some other stuff) rum was the most popular alcoholic beverage in America in Colonial times.

do you have any more photos of the cool trucks that are hauling it away and can i have permission to post these in my facebook photos i wanna show some friends of mine who have never seen sugar cane equipment and would like to see photos of them

and do you have photos of that service truck servicing the dozer and any other equipment photos could you please post them and do you have pics of every piece of equipment they run if you do post them please if you don't could you please take them and post them

Hi JD9545R,

Nice pictures, is the cane in the trailers waste or is it on the way to the sugar mill like that? Here the cane is cut and loaded on to highway trucks by hand and off loaded at the mill by a cable rig with forks or tines that work similar to a clam. All the leaves are stripped of in the field. Cane cutters make P100 per day or around $2.00. The field is then burned and preped for the next planting, also by hand. They plant a piece of the stock about 18" long with a sprout sticking out.

Miningtrucks - I don't think I have any more pics but will look. I'll try to take some more pics for you next month during my visit.

dozerdave - this operation burns the cane, shoves it into windrowes and then loads it onto the trucks you see in the picture. The trailers are lined with a log-chain webbing which acts like a "sling". At the plant, a crane device is used to lift one side of the sling which pulls the whole mess out of the trailer when lifted. Planting is done just as you mention but by a machine.