Protect 15% More Sugar in Drought-Stressed Ratoon Cane

The Problem

Late-season drought in ratoon sugarcane is a quiet margin killer. Stalk yield drops, sugar accumulation slows, and pest pressure ramps up just as the crop heads into harvest. By the time damage is visible in the field, most agronomic tools have already run their course and there's no way to add water.

Ratoon production is supposed to be the highest-margin part of the cycle — you're already paying for stand establishment. Losing 10–15% of that yield to drought is a direct hit to operating profit.

The Trial

A commercial trial in Sales Oliveira, São Paulo evaluated Agrarius on ratoon sugarcane that ran through severe drought across the 2023/2024 cycle. Two application windows were tested — summer (March, ~150 days post-ratoon) and autumn (May, ~60 days pre-harvest) — at 0.5 L/ha each.

• Location: Sales Oliveira, São Paulo
• Crop: Ratoon sugarcane (harvested October 2023, stressed through 2024)
• Conditions: Severe drought across the production cycle
• Protocol: 0.5 L/ha foliar at summer (Mar) and autumn (May) windows
• Season investment: 1 L/ha total

What Happened

The autumn application alone delivered the strongest, most consistent results. Quality stayed flat — gains came from yield, not concentration tricks.

• Recoverable sugar: 13.6 Mg pol/ha treated vs. 11.8 Mg pol/ha control — +15% (an extra 1.8 Mg pol/ha).
• Stalk yield: 87 Mg/ha vs. 79 Mg/ha — +9–10% (an extra 8 Mg/ha).
• Sugar quality: Brix, fiber, pol, and TRS all unchanged — no quality penalty for the volume gain.
• Pest pressure: Diatraea saccharalis borer infestation dropped from 3.6% (control) to 1.2% with the summer application — a 47% reduction.

The crop finished stronger and accumulated more sugar despite the drought.

Why This Matters

Mills pay by recoverable sugar. An extra 1.8 Mg pol/ha lands directly in the cheque.

• On a 25-ha ratoon block, that's about 45 tons of additional recoverable sugar.
• At R$300–400 per ton of sugar, that's R$13,500–18,000 per block of recovered value — recurring every ratoon cycle.
• Plus 200 tons of additional stalk volume across the same block.

Ratoon profitability is shaped most by what happens late in the cycle. Agrarius gives operators something to do during the drought window itself, when other levers are exhausted.

How To Use It

Two windows fit the standard ratoon calendar.

• Summer pass (Mar–Apr): roughly 150 days post-ratoon, while the crop is recovering — supports biomass preservation and reduces pest load.
• Autumn pass (May–Jun): roughly 60 days before anticipated harvest — peak-effect timing.
• Rate: 0.5 L/ha per pass; 1 L/ha season total.
• Equipment: standard foliar sprayer.

If only one application fits the budget, use the autumn timing. The data showed it carries the bulk of the yield response on its own.