Nowadays, Brazil is the largest producer of sugarcane, with an output of 632 million tons in the last harvest season (2014/2015). Out of this amount, 571.34 million tons of sugarcane were produced in the Center-South region of Brazil, generating approximately 31.99 million tons of sugar and 26.15 billion liters of ethanol. The number displayed for ethanol production is likely to increase in the coming years, as it is becoming a reality the setting up of new modern plants to produce the second-generation ethanol from bagasse and sugarcane straw. Another important product of sugarcane is the energy obtained by burning bagasse. Thus, the sugar and ethanol sectors have played a major role in the economic, environmental and social Brazilian scenarios. However the management of companies in this sector has been a very complex task, and there is a great need for computational and mathematical techniques to aid in making optimal decisions. Thus, this work aims to present an initial approach providing a methodology to help planning the sugarcane harvesting in order to obtain a decision of the harvesting period. The goal is to maximize the profitability of the company, exploiting the maximum plant potential to generate sucrose, to reduce costs involved in the harvesting process and to meet the demand of the plant.