Cellulosic ethanol derived from sugarcane straw may have a significant role to play in the projected increase of Brazilian biofuel production for next years. However, some practical challenges, such as, defining how much and how to recover straw from the field still need to be overcome. Integrated sugarcane harvesting (i.e. stalks plus straw) with straw separation at the processing site has shown greater cost-effectiveness. However, there is no published procedure to quantify the yield of sugarcane straw, to set up the harvester to collect only a specific portion of this straw or to verify the quantity of straw left in the field. We conducted four field trials in the southeast of Brazil to develop systematic field guidelines that describe how to estimate the yield of sugarcane straw, the harvester setup to vary the amount of straw left in the field and how to evaluate the overall performance of the operation. The results showed that these guidelines were efficient (r(2) >= 0.97, p < 0.01) and, therefore, can be incorporated into a standard protocol to help the sugarcane industry improve the efficiency of the sugarcane straw harvesting process for bioelectricity cogeneration and cellulosic ethanol production. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.