FEBRUARY–MARCH 2011 COVER Australian Sugarcane PO Box 766, Toowoomba, 4350. Phone: (07) 4659 3555. Fax: (07) 4638 4520. Email: [email protected]DELIVERY ADDRESS: 120 Herries Street, Toowoomba, Qld. 4350 EDITOR: Brian O’Connell PRODUCTION MANAGER: Mick Allan ASSOCIATE EDITORS: David Dowling GROUP SALES MANAGER: Norm Neeld Lloyd O’Connell OFFICE MANAGER: Catherine O’Connell ADVERTISING: Norm Neeld Phone (07) 5450 1720 Fax (07) 5450 1102 E: [email protected]CONTENTS OF ADVERTISEMENTS are the responsibility of the advertisers. All statements and opinions expressed in Australian Sugarcane are published after due consideration of information gained from sources believed to be authentic. The following of advice given is at the reader’s own risk, and no responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of the matter published herein. No portion in whole or part may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. Copyright 2011. Published by Berekua Pty. Ltd., 40 Creek Street, Brisbane, Queensland. Registered by Australia Post Publication No. PP 424022/1582. ISSN 1442–5157. PUBLISHED: APRIL, JUNE, AUGUST, OCTOBER, DECEMBER, FEBRUARY. AUSTRALIAN SUGARCANE ANNUAL The wet conditions over past months will have caused nitrogen loss. Soil sampling and testing will tell you what has happened to your soil nutrients. Satellite remote sensing of sugarcane Renewable energy snapshot Nutrition Feature INSIDE Print Post Approved Publication No. PP424022/1582 FEBRUARY–MARCH 2011 Volume 15, No. 1 $6.60 FEATURES 4 BSES northern news 6 Satellite remote sensing of sugarcane – some FAQs Nutrition Feature 12 Growers to benefit from new phosphorus test 13 Three new cane fertiliser blends 14 Global phosphate market on the rise 16 Down to Earth: Soil sampling after the big wet 17 Renewable energy snapshot – where do we fit in? REGULAR SECTIONS 2 Editorial 10 Modern Machinery Matters: On track for improved harvest efficiency 20 Marketing: Impact of the floods on commodities 23 Classic Tractor Tales: Tractor loader/backhoes remembered – Part two 26 District Reports including ACFA Chairman’s Comment 30 Fishing: I’ve gone and done what we were ‘Gunnado’ February–March 2011 Australian Sugarcane — 1
EDITOR: Brian O’Connell PRODUCTION MANAGER: Mick Allan ASSOCIATE EDITORS: David Dowling GROUP SALES MANAGER: Norm Neeld Lloyd O’Connell OFFICE MANAGER: Catherine O’Connell
CONTENTS OF ADVERTISEMENTS are the responsibility of the advertisers. All statements and opinions expressed in Australian Sugarcane are published after due consideration of information gained from sources believed to be authentic. The following of advice given is at the reader’s own risk, and no responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of the matter published herein. No portion in whole or part may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. Copyright 2011.
Published by Berekua Pty. Ltd., 40 Creek Street, Brisbane, Queensland. Registered by Australia Post Publication No. PP 424022/1582. ISSN 1442–5157.
PUBLISHED: APRIL, JUNE, AUGUST, OCTOBER, DECEMBER, FEBRUARY. AUSTRALIAN SUGARCANE ANNUAL
The wet conditions over past months will have caused
nitrogen loss. Soil sampling and testing will tell you what has happened to your soil
nutrients.
Satellite remote sensing of sugarcane
Renewable energy snapshot
Nutrition Feature
INSI
DE
Print Post Approved Publication No. PP424022/1582
FEBRUARY–MARCH 2011Volume 15, No. 1 $6.60
FEATURES
4 BSES northern news
6 Satellite remote sensing of sugarcane – some FAQs
Nutrition Feature
12 Growers to benefit from new phosphorus test
13 Three new cane fertiliser blends
14 Global phosphate market on the rise
16 Down to Earth: Soil sampling after the big wet
17 Renewable energy snapshot – where do we fit in?
REGULAR SECTIONS 2 Editorial
10 Modern Machinery Matters: On track for improved harvest efficiency
20 Marketing: Impact of the floods on commodities
23 Classic Tractor Tales: Tractor loader/backhoes remembered – Part two
26 District Reports including ACFA Chairman’s Comment
30 Fishing: I’ve gone and done what we were ‘Gunnado’
remote sensing technologies have the potential to drastically improve the monitoring of spatial variability within australian sugarcane crops. This will mean better management of inputs and the optimisation of crop yields.See article . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 6
Nutrition featureThe development
of a more reliable soil test for phosphorus is expected to deliver significant benefits to australian growers. The DGT test has been shown to more accurately assess phosphorus availability to crops than the ‘colwell P’ test commonly used by soil testing laboratories..Articles start . . . . . . . . . Page 12
Tractor loader/backhoes – Part 2
The saga of Ian’s experiences as Sales Manager of Lough equipment Pty. Ltd. and the big Whitlock loader backhoes continues, with a new challenge on the horizon. Its name was Jcb!.See article . . . . . . . . . . . Page 23
In this issue...
Editorial...�Well we’ve had the big wet, the big flood and the
big wind – I have mentioned before the Chinese adage, “May you live in interesting times.” It’s not meant to be well wishing, quite the opposite in fact. Just how opposite for the cane industry is still to become clear with the economic, emotional and en-vironmental cost of all these ‘interesting’ events yet to be determined.
As you are no doubt aware, we are not the only farming sector to be facing some climatic challenges. I had cause to be in Horsham, Western Victoria for the recent Wimmera Machinery Field Days. In mid-January the 23 hectare field day site had a metre of water flowing through it. They had six weeks to prepare to accommodate 650 exhibitors and 25,000 patrons. There was a lot of hard work and long hours put in and all was going very well until the night be-fore the event. Some 40mm of very localised rain fell on the site, turning it into a miniature, muddy Venice – and the car park into a marina.
There are many farmers on the committee who were still trying to harvest grain when the flood hit in January, let alone when this last storm arrived, so they were probably not surprised by this turn of events. After all farmers know that if things can go wrong they probably will.
Visitors found themselves being directed into a golf course a few kilometres from the field day site and then be-ing put aboard a school bus to be delivered to the look alike Venice – it worked, just made things more interesting’.
There was a lot of interest shown by farmer and exhibitor friends alike in the current state of the sugar industry. They sympathised and identified with the climate challenges, par-ticularly Yasi. They also nodded wisely when the discussion
turned to the perils of forward pricing. One observa-tion springs to mind, “You’ve got to be burnt before you’ve learnt.”
This was from a grain grower who is a regular ‘forward pricer’ but who remembers well the cost and the angst of buying back contracts that he could not fulfil. His view now is that forward pricing is an-
other marketing tool, and a good workman doesn’t blame his tools when things go wrong. Just ensure you learn how to use your tools properly during your apprenticeship.
Another marketing tool for farmers is vertical integra-tion. This allows the farmers to not only produce the crop, but to also participate in the processing, marketing and dis-tribution of their produce – and benefit from the margins that accrue at each stage.
Sounds like a grower controlled sugar company really – one that could well serve both the interests of its grower shareholders and their clients. I believe there may be an opportunity for such an entity in Tully.
I know that a Turkish sugar producer founded by 17 agriculture cooperatives and 60,000 farmers is planning to buy a sugar and ethanol producing plant in Brazil. The company, Konya Seker, invests in any field that is related to farmers in terms of both production and consumption. This ranges from the manufacture of irrigation pipes to the energy sector – and includes agricultural research and de-velopment. Konya Seker also runs a chocolate factory, a hedge against any falls in sugar sales.
Seems there are opportunities out there, we just need to wade through the debris of the big wet, the big flood and the big wind to realise on them.
by�Brian�O’Connell,�Editor
2 — Australian Sugarcane February–March 2011
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impacted upon the BSES plant breeding efforts as much as any commercial harvesting, with sev-eral final assessment trials left unharvested despite major efforts to complete all har-vesting and data collection.
QCANE-Select was regularly updated and many BSES plots were hand sprayed and fertilised.
BIOSECURITYMany permits were issued for the move-
ment of machinery between Quarantine areas. This included the extra demand for machinery travelling to the Burdekin to as-sist with the wet weather harvest.
There were concerns expressed by BSES staff about some contractors leav-ing the Burdekin without the necessary permits, or contacting BSES or BPS staff for inspections. The need to make sure all machinery is free of trash and mud was reinforced to the industry.
WEED CONTROLThe terrible weather conditions made it
difficult to get growers to integrated weed management workshops. When ever the sun appeared, growers had to try and do as much farm work as possible, so all workshops/meetings were organised with this in mind.
Further assessments were carried out on plant and ratoon crops to reinforce the effectiveness of aerial application of herbi-cides considering such aerial applications
generally involve lower water rates than ground applications.• Overall the effectiveness of aerial ap-
plications at lower water rates has been very good.
• Gesapax Combi + 2,4–D were the most common aerially applied herbicides dur-ing the very wet conditions and while
there is some phytotoxic effect of Ametryn based herbicides on sugar cane, this effect is far less significant than the potential losses incurred by having no weed con-trol at all.
• As the wet conditions continued the need to switch to Asulox+Actril mix-tures became apparent.
• Apart from aerial application, light in-ter–row tractors and motorbikes became the major implements for herbicide ap-plication.
• Herbert BSES staff members hand sprayed, and fertilised a 2011 release plot of Q238A as it is too close to houses for aerial herbicide application and motorbikes were bogging before even reaching the drills due to the ex-cessive wet conditions.
CROP NUTRITIONA major project is commencing in the
Burdekin based on fine tuning Nitrogen rates, loss mechanisms and the rate of deni-trification for both the BRIA and Delta soils.
Industry representative bodies came together on the issue to support BSES in gaining funding from DERM to conduct these trials.
With some Nitrogen trials already in existence in the Burdekin, this new pro-gramme will increase the number of trial sites and be aimed at the high producing grower co-operators, where plant cane av-erages around the 160 t/ha mark.
The project will compare nitrogen rates above and below the Six Easy Steps rec-ommendations. Six trial sites will be placed in the BRIA, three in the Delta and one in
SuMMary…Over the past few months the conditions across the northern sugar cane producing
regions can be summed up in one word – wet.• Standover cane occurred in all regions except the Tablelands – approximately four
million tonnes across the northern region.• The wet weather continued after harvest, with flooding in many regions.• harvesting in wet ground conditions saw damage to paddocks and excess mud in
cane supplied to the mills.• The demand for herbicide and nutrient application advice continued, especially with
the reliance on aerial applications.• a draft fact sheet on how to manage stand-over cane was produced and sent to all
districts. This was modified to suit local conditions and sent out after consultation with the local industry.
• advice on how to manage standover is hard to give because each time it is required, different varieties are involved.
• The Species Management Plan for rats was released and meetings held across the north to assist the industry reduce the economic impact of a pest that thrives in standover cane.
Plant cane in the Herbert after successful aerial application of herbicides. Note the top end of the paddock under powerlines where no chemical could be applied.
the high carbon soils of Babinda. In ad-dition, DEEDI will operate three separate trial sites as part of this project.
TRIAL WORk – HERBICIDESIn all districts, field observation work with
herbicide mixtures is an ongoing process.Tully: As part of a water quality field
day a series of pre-emergent demonstra-tions were set up on the BSES station.
The object was to show how alternative pre-emergents to Atrazine, Ametryn, Di-uron and Hexazinone can be used. Prod-ucts like Soccer and Balance for example were used.
This field day attracted more than 120 growers from Ingham to Innisfail and was a great success.
Burdekin: Wet weather prevented the last herbicide treatments being applied to the herbicide by variety trial. The cane has now lodged making it impossible to spray the final over the top applications of 2,4–D and MCPA.
IRRIGATIONIrrigation advice may seem superfluous
in these very wet times but on the Table-lands the irrigation advisory service pro-vided by BSES was in demand. This service includes a weekly SMS message outlining irrigation requirements for crop class.
DRAINAGEVery little drainage maintenance has
been carried out due to the excessively wet conditions.
RAT MANAGEMENT• BSES rodent ecologist Brendan Dyer
was part of an industry team that pre-pared a Species Management Plan (SMP) which has been accepted by DERM. This Plan has allowed a Memo-randum of Understanding to be set up with DERM which allows the sugar in-dustry to bait from October to July – a great step forward in the management of both ground and climbing rats.
• The SMP was launched by Brendan Dyer with a series of meetings from In-gham north.
• We have both standover cane and headlands becoming overgrown be-cause wet conditions prevent slashing. Management will prove vital as rats will increase in numbers with the increased harbourage area.
SUGAR QUALITY ISSUESAn Extension Officer conference was
held in Cairns where further training took place regarding sugar quality issues. After such a difficult harvesting year, it is antici-pated BSES staff will be dealing with a lot of sugar quality issues in 2011 with stan-dover cane and damaged paddocks.
Drawn from the BSES report by Greg Shannon – Extension Leader; North n
February–March 2011 Australian Sugarcane — 5
The control plot, with Stomp + Soccer (left) and Stomp + Atrazine (right) at the Tully pre-emergent trial sites.
Ingham Farm Centre Abergowrie depot manager Shane Green with BSES rat ecologist Brendan Dyer at the launch of the SMP for the Herbert.
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Remote sensing technologies have the potential to drastically improve the monitoring of spatial variability
within Australian sugarcane crops. This will mean better management of inputs and the optimisation of crop yields.
Satellite applications that detect crop damage from pest, disease and poor nu-trition, as well as predict yield over time, have been investigated within many agri-cultural systems including sugarcane. But grower adoption in the sugar industry re-mains low.
Our industry has a poor understanding of what technologies are available, who provides them, what they cost and the cost/benefit of implementation. As well we have an overall shortage of knowledge and skills in the interpretation and then dissemination of the data to end users.
This article addresses some of these is-sues by seeking to inform consultants and growers of the benefits of adopting these technologies – particularly with the ongo-ing pressures of maintaining economical and environmental sustainability.
What is measured?Remote sensing satellite platforms
measure the amount of solar electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) reflected and transmitted by a plant canopy. The meas-urement of EMR within the Near-Infrared (NIR) region (700 – 1300 nm) provides an indication of a plant’s internal canopy
structure. This is predominantly influenced by leaf water content and morphology and indicates plant stress or desiccation. The Red region (600 – 700 nm) is specific to chlorophyll concentration.
Ratios of NIR and Red reflectance such as NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegeta-tion Index) or PCD (Plant Cell Density) when mapped across a crop are com-monly used to identify variability in plant structure and condition. Generally the
more vigorous the plant the higher the as-sociated crop yield.
What is the best spatial resolution?Currently available commercial satellites
offer a wide range of spatial resolutions, defined by the size of the on ground image picture element or pixel.
These range from an image depicting an area of 0.5 m2 to 1.0 km2. The optimum resolution is determined by the required application i.e. do you want information per plant, per farm or at a landscape scale.
Too low a spatial resolution may limit the ability to define specific crop features such as disease or pest ‘hot spots’ or even crop boundaries. Conversely, too high a spatial resolution may complicate the defi-nition of larger management zones due to a ‘salt and pepper’ effect. Each pixel is providing a measure of many independent features such as plant canopy, trash, soil and shadow.
In general, high resolution imagery is better suited for measuring localised plant stress such as that from cane grubs or nematode damage, weed and disease, as well as overall variability within smaller crops.
Mid resolution imagery, such as 10 to
Satellite remote sensing of sugarcane – some FAQs
By Andrew Robson1, Chris Abbott1, David Lamb2 and Rob Bramley3
FIGURE 1: Image of plant cane by 0.8m IkONOS imagery (left) and 10m SPOT5 imagery (right) – the brighter the red colour, the higher the infrared reflectance and the more vigorous the crop
TABLE 1: Commercially available satellite imagery options for assessing within-field variability
20 metres, could be considered to be more suitable for identifying variability trends across whole crops, farms and catchments including those arising from soil variability, topography or prior history.
An example of a single cane block cap-tured at two different spatial resolutions is included in Figure 1.
Commercially available satellite options and their associated cost
Selection of the most cost-effective im-agery ultimately depends on the intended application, with spatial resolution as well as the minimum capture area having the greatest influence. In general, higher spa-tial resolution images are more expensive per hectare than lower resolution images, but generally have a lot smaller minimum required capture area such as 47 km2
compared to 5000 km2.If an individual grower is purchasing an
image directly from a provider, they will gen-erally have to pay for an area greater than their farm, resulting in the cost for useable imagery on a hectare basis increasing.
This can be minimised by including a number of neighbouring growers to share the cost, have a consultant provide the im-agery as part of their agronomic service or use an image on-seller who can purchase whole scenes and then on-sell each prop-erty as required. The latter may result in a slight increase in imagery cost. But the re-sultant product is likely to be correctly proc-essed for geographic accuracy and have vegetation indices such as NDVI applied.
Also worth noting is the image revisit time, where the higher the frequency the more chance that imagery will be suc-cessfully captured in regions with contin-ued cloud cover. Other platforms such as LIDAR, Radar and aerial imagery are available but are not covered in this arti-cle. A list of commercially available satellite
imagery platforms and associated costs is provided in Table 1.
Some commercial providers and on-sellers of satellite imagery:• AAM: www.aamgroup.com• Geoimage: www.geoimage.com.au• SPOT imaging Services:
Growers generally have a good under-standing of variability within their cane blocks. Satellite imagery can improve this awareness by indicating the exact location
and area affected by a cropping constraint, as well as identifying those events such as pest incursion or lodging that do not per-sist from season to season.
From the Figure 2, a large degree of variability within a plant cane crop can be seen, with high vigour or PCD shown as Blue and low vigour or PCD as Red (like NDVI, PCD gives an indication of the size and health of the plant canopy).
From this map, GPS guided agronomic and yield assessments can be made to de-termine the nature of the constraints as well as their impact on productivity. In this example yield, commercial cane sugar (CCS) and soil samples were collected to coincide with commercial harvest.
The low PCD regions within this crop yielded 90 tonnes of cane per hectare (TCH) compared to 170 tonnes per hec-tare in the high areas. The relationship between the point source measurement of cane yield and the corresponding image information can allow a yield map to be
February–March 2011 Australian Sugarcane — 7
FIGURE 2: Classified PCD IkONOS 0.8 m image of plant cane crop with sample locations (area =11.5 ha)
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developed as well as provide an estimate of total yield (Figure 3).
The development of a generic yield al-gorithm (Table 2) that can accurately pre-dict total yield as well as yield variability without the need for crop sampling would be of great benefit to the Australian sugar industry. This would not only assist grow-ers with management decisions but, as Mackay Sugar Ltd has demonstrated, can also allow more accurate regional deci-sions regarding forward selling, handling and storage to be made prior to harvest.
Cost-benefit of informed decisions regarding remedial action
By identifying the area of reduced productivity as well as the resulting yield deficit, an estimation of lost productivity in monetary terms can be made.
From the example above the low vigour regions yielded 10 tonnes of harvestable sugar per hectare less than the high yield-ing areas. Expressed in monetary terms this would equate to $4500 (at $450 per tonne per hectare). With the low yield-
ing area extending over four hectares this would equate to $18,000 of less than op-timum productivity.
By identifying the nature of the limit-ing factor – in this case sandy subsoil with reduced water holding capacity, low EC, exchangeable nutrients and trace elements – a decision can be made on the cost/ben-efit of an application of mill mud or clay.
Understanding your blocks inherent variability
Imagery acquired over a number of cropping seasons can allow growers to understand the inherent spatial variability within their blocks.
If the spatial orientation of both high and low crop regions remains unchanged across seasons and crop age (such as 2005, 2008 and 2010 in Figure 4) then well informed decisions can be made on the management of these blocks prior to planting – such as including the use of vari-able rate technologies (VRT).
If the zones are unstable from season to season (such as 2005 to 2007) then the
impacts of climate, management or ro-tational effects should be considered and managed appropriately.
CONCLUSIONPioneers of remote sensing technolo-
gies such as independent precision agri-cultural services and some industry groups have long understood the benefits of satel-lite imagery. But for industry wide adop-tion it is imperative that all players obtain some understanding of what technologies are available and what possible applica-tions and cost/benefits they can provide.
To increase overall adoption there is an obvious need to address the limitations of imagery accessibility, availability and mini-mum area – a web based framework linked to a commercial image provider could pos-sibly provide a solution.
This method of accessing imagery – linked with integrated farm management software – would enable growers to make better informed management decisions us-ing spatial information that includes yield and soil maps, elevation and so on. This would also result in the improved man-agement of crop inputs and ultimately in-creased productivity.
Although this is not a new concept, the availability of new commercial platforms and a greater awareness of what the tech-nology can offer may improve adoptability. This would enable Australian cane farmers to maintain – and improve – their eco-nomic and environmental sustainability.
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge SRDC for providing funding for this research as well as those growers and industry partners whom have collaborated. DERM provided access to imagery over a number of the target sites.
For more information please contact: Andrew Robson ([email protected]) Chris Abbott ([email protected]).1Department of Employment Economic Development and Innovation. Kingaroy, Qld. 4610. 2University of New England. Armidale NSW. 2351. 3CSIRO, Adelaide. SA. 5064. n
FIGURE 3: Correlation between PCD and TCH (left) and surrogate yield map (right) derived from PCD/TCH correlation
FIGURE 4: Images acquired over several seasons allows growers to better understand block variability
2005 Q188 2R 2007 Q205 AP 2008 Q205 1R 2010 Q208 SR
TABLE 2: Development of generic yield algorithmPrediction of average crop yield = 38 13 * EXP(0 32*PCD crop average)
= 38 13 * EXP(0 32*4.123) = 142.6 TCH
Prediction of total yield = 11.52 ha * 142.6 TCH = 1643 tonnes
Actual yield harvested = 1526.6 t (prediction over by 8%
If you want to increase your cane payment this season, then get into your local accredited stockist for more infrormation.
For further information, please contact the Syngenta Technical Product Advice Line: Freecall 1800 067 108 Freefax 1800 805 871 or visit our website www.syngenta.com.au ® Registered trademark of a Syngenta Group Company. AD11/098
I f you want to keep your harvester and chaser bins on the “straight and narrow” this could be for you. No more spillages, no more collisions, and no more operator stress – sounds too
good to be true but it’s a reality and it’s coming to a harvest near you …. soon.
The technology is not yet commercially available but it’s already a winner, receiving a Gold medal in the SIMA Innovation Awards at the Paris Agricultural Show in February 2011.
Automatic vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) syn-chronisation technology is the latest har-vesting innovation to emerge from Case IH. Developed for grain harvesters, it will also have application in cane.
V2V synchronisation technology will boost harvesting efficiency. By using a ‘master and slave’ approach, the combine becomes the central ‘master’ and takes con-trol of the tractors/chaser bins.
Wireless controlCentral to the system is a wireless con-
nection, which is used to manage data exchange between vehicles. The combine takes control and dictates forward speed,
vehicle alignment and direction of travel to the tractor when it enters the ‘active zone.’ The driver of the combine is then able to monitor the unloading and status of the chaser bin.
The main advantage of this system is consistent and repeatable unloading on-the-go during harvesting as the individual tractors/chaser bins arrive at the combine. Even with unskilled operators it is possible to perfectly fill trailers and avoid spilling crop over the edge of the chaser bin.
The system’s precise vehicle alignment eliminates the risk of tractor and combine collisions and reduces operator stress and errors.
“The V2V system lets you synchronise unloading operations in real-time, increas-ing efficiency a stage further. And that is just the beginning of this very promising devel-opment,” said Case IH’s Advanced Farming Systems Product Manager, Ross Johansson.
“While the technology is not yet avail-able, it is a perfect example of the way Case IH is always looking for ways to make farm-ers’ lives easier and their businesses more productive.”
Modern Machinery
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Central to the system is a wireless connection which monitors the alignment
data for both vehicles.
February–March 2011 Australian Sugarcane — 11
Monitoring cane yield at harvest presents considerably more challenges than grain. While commercial yield monitors that use surrogate measurements are available, the accuracy is questionable.
One monitor not enoughSimply measuring cane yield at one point on the harvester is
proving to be insufficient to produce accurate results. We are now in the third year of assessing the performance of three yield monitoring systems used by commercial operators and working to develop improved cane yield monitoring systems.
Depending on whether cane is burnt to remove leaf material or unburnt, at least 150 t/ha of material can pass through the harvester, compared to up to 10 t/ha for australian grain crops.
unlike grain which is granular and flows, cane is cut into billets that are approximately 200 mm long but this varies between regions. both the shape and the variation in billet length present unique challenges to monitoring yield.
It’s about sugar, not just caneIn addition, sugar production is about tonnes of sugar, not tonnes
of cane and extraction rates vary depending on cane variety, maturity and climatic conditions.
Three commercial yield monitoring systems now have been mounted on a single harvester. This arrangement allows simultaneous assessment, while eliminating the influence of machine set-up and site characteristics that would be encountered through independent evaluation of each machine.
The yield monitors were supplied with low accuracy non-differential gps. In 2008, this resulted in yield maps having three to four rows of data overlapping due to the low quality of the spatial fix. Since 2009, a differential gps has been used with sub-metre accuracy.
The cane yield values are an estimate derived from indirect measurements of various harvester characteristics that are altered by crop yield, and normalised (i.e. post processed) against the weigh bin or mill totals to produced tonnes per hectare. The agGuide system monitored hydraulic pressure in the elevator motor, while the Techagro unit monitored the angle of opening of the final feed roller. The third unit monitored the hydraulic pressure in the chopper motor. These locations can be seen on Figure 1.
The results from the yield monitor were compared to weigh bin and mill weight data at a range of scales from 50 metre rows to the entire field.
considerable variation was found between the results gathered by each of the yield monitors and these were not consistent with the encouraging earlier works that explored these concepts. In
addition, ground speed, which in 2009 was set for either high or low, was found to strongly influence the accuracy of the yield monitors. The ground speed controls the pour rate (tonnes of cane harvested per hour), and is independent of the weight of crop being harvested
Now concentrating on sensing methodsIn 2010, the trial ceased testing the commercial yield monitors
and instead, tested the sensing methods. Data was gathered from the three previous monitoring concepts and from a weight pad that was fitted into the floor of the elevator (Figure 1).
each sensor gathers 40 readings per second and this data is averaged and recorded per second on the data-logger. again, measurements are checked against weigh bin and mill weight data. The latitude and longitude, time, speed, fuel usage and temperature are among the other parameters logged during the harvest process.
This system has enabled us to compare the yield maps generated from each of the four sensing concepts with the map based on the weigh bin data.
While it is still early days the results to date are promising. With further assessment and trials, we hope to be able to establish the particular field conditions in which the sensors provide a reliable or unreliable indication of yield. We also hope to establish the combination of sensors required to provide the most accurate cane yield maps.
The lack of accurate yield maps is considered to be a major factor limiting the uptake of Precision agriculture in the sugar industry. It is hoped this research and further collaboration with other researchers will overcome this hurdle.
Troy Jensen is a senior research fellow at the National centre for engineering in agriculture. The project “a coordinated approach to Precision agriculture rDe for the australian Sugar Industry” is funded by SrDc and run in collaboration with cSIrO and bSeS, with technical assistance from bauke Fokkema of Wageningen university.Details: Troy Jensen, 07 4631 1398 [email protected]
bITTer SWeeT SucceSS FOr SuGar yIeLD MONITOrINGBy Troy Jensen
FIGURE 1
As considerable variation was found between the results gathered by each of the sugar yield monitors concepts rather than monitor performance are now being tested.
The development of a more reliable soil test for phosphorus is expected to deliver significant benefits to Aus-
tralian growers.Research funded by the Grains Re-
search and Development Corporation (GRDC) and conducted by the University of Adelaide is refining the soil test method ‘Diffusive Gradients in Thin-Films’ (DGT).
The DGT test has been shown to more accurately assess phosphorus availability to crops than the ‘Colwell P’ test com-monly used by soil testing laboratories.
It does not require the use of the Phos-phorus Buffering Index (PBI) used in con-junction with the Colwell P test to help with that method’s interpretation.
The DGT test was developed for marine systems at Lancaster University and has been applied to soil phosphorus testing by The University of Adelaide.
The University of Adelaide researcher Sean Mason said Australian laboratory and field trials of the DGT method showed that, unlike existing phosphorus tests, it was not influenced by soil type.
“The solution used in the Colwell P test can sometimes solubilise less avail-able forms of phosphorus, therefore over-estimating phosphorus available to crops,” Sean said.
“This over-estimation of available phos-
phorus occurs on soil types including cal-careous, alkaline soils – and acidic soils containing high levels of aluminium and iron.
Sean said it was important that growers applied the correct amount of phospho-rus at the start of the season, and this de-pended on accurate soil test results.
“Unlike nitrogen, which can be topped
up later if deficiencies become apparent, phosphorus deficiencies are more difficult to correct during the growing season,” he said.
“Growers affected by drought and fluc-tuating fertiliser prices are forced to make difficult decisions regarding the application of phosphorus fertilisers and could make better decisions with access to more accu-rate soil testing methods.”
Sean said the DGT method involved a device, containing a gel, being placed on a moist soil sample.
“Phosphorus in the soil moves towards iron contained in the gel and the iron binds the phosphorus and removes it from the solution,” he said.
“The beauty of the DGT test is that it mimics the behaviour of crop roots in the way it lowers phosphorus concentrations in the soil solution,” he said.
Sean said that if the DGT method was commercialised, it would be used in labora-tories which tested growers’ soil samples.
He said some inter-laboratory com-parisons of DGT had already taken place, and this work was expected to continue in 2011 to test the method’s feasibility as a commercial service.
Sean said the DGT method was currently used to test phosphorus only, but could po-tentially be used for other nutrients. n
NUTRITION FEATURE
Growers to benefit from new phosphorus test
Sean Mason.
A moist soil sample undergoing DGT testing.DGT test components, including the orange-coloured gel which contains iron to bind phosphorus.
Three new cane fertiliser blends
Fertiliser solutions supplier Advanced Nutrients has taken on a new warehouse to accommodate the expansion in their range of blended fertilisers - of the14 new blends, three are
specifically for sugar cane.Managing Director, Craig Salmon said Advanced Nutrients was
committed to giving farmers choice, quality, service and support.“Our range of blends has been specifically mixed with grower
input. Our staff has been in the field asking growers what they need.”
One big attraction of the sugar blends is the addition of Black Urea in the mix. Advanced Nutrients have three sugar blends, Black Ratooner, Black Ratooner Plus and Black Ratooner Extreme. Each with the company’s own bio-stimulant coated Black Urea in place of ordinary urea.
Craig said that years of research both in Australia and overseas on Black Urea has culminated in a superior product to boost plant growth by improving nitrogen efficiently, saving growers fertiliser costs by reducing leaching and volatisation.
“Our research and development in the Black Range has always been on the dollar return for the grower.”
“The results growers have had using Black Urea speak for themselves, so replacing ordinary urea with Black Urea will give the blends the added advantages of product efficiency and cost savings.
“Stock will be available any time the grower wants it, and the new blends are in addition to our granular, liquid and commodity range to give growers a choice.” Craig said.
The new blending operation commences in April.. n
February–March 2011 Australian Sugarcane — 13
NUTRITION FEATURE
Advanced Nutrients Managing Director, Craig Salmon, checks on operations.
science and nature working together
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The global market for phosphates is forecast to reach 68.7 million met-ric tons by the year 2015, driven
by growing demand in developing coun-tries. The growth is largely attributed to burgeoning population, change in income and diets as well as limited arable land. De-mand for greater crop production will lead to a spurt in the popularity of biofuels and phosphate fertilisers.
Consumption of phosphates, to a large extent, depends on seasonal weather pat-terns and regulations governing the usage. Growth in the global market is expected to stem largely from the developing countries of Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East. With relatively high usage of phos-phates in fertilisers and detergents in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, the regions are poised to remain the pioneers for the phosphates market in the foreseeable fu-ture.
China is the world’s largest phosphate rock producer, with production volume nearing 55 million tons in 2009, followed by the US as the next largest producing country. Morocco and Western Sahara, Russia, Tunisia, Jordan and Brazil com-prise some of the other leading phosphate rock producers on a global scale.
Lack of stringent regulatory restric-tions offers ample growth opportunities in these markets. On the other hand, usage of phosphates in detergents is witnessing a diminishing trend in developed markets such as North America and Europe, owing to environmental hazards such as eutroph-ication and algal bloom in waterways.
The global phosphoric acid market is presently staring at a crucial demand-sup-ply imbalance, wherein production levels far exceed the actual demand. Similar to the situation in 2006, the global economic downturn in 2008–09 prompted a virtual collapse of fertiliser demand, amidst high supply levels.
Fertilisers make up the majority chunk of global phosphate production, with de-mand for phosphorous fertilisers primarily driven by high consumption levels in devel-oping and large populous countries such as India, China, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Argentina due to greater food require-ments.
But, consumption of phosphorous ferti-lisers is decreasing in developed nations in-cluding the US, Europe, and Japan, due to increasing shift towards more eco-friendly agricultural production.
Detergents make up the second big-gest end-use market for phosphates after fertilisers. But phosphate consumption in detergents is on a downward spiral due to concerns over its role in pollution of wa-terways. Phosphate-based detergents have been seriously impacted by stringent regu-latory norms, mainly in developed regions of European Union and North America. Use of phosphate in detergents is almost phased out in many European countries and several states in the US.
Another major area of concern that could have a grave implication for the fu-ture prospects of phosphates is the fast depletion of phosphate rock reserves glo-bally. Even though reserves are found in
many countries, recoverable resources are located only in China, US and Morocco. Judging by the current rates of extraction, reserves of phosphate rock in the US will deplete in the next 30 years, while global reserves will last only for a maximum pe-riod of 100 years.
The worldwide economic downturn that surfaced in 2008 had an adverse impact on demand and ultimately the production of phosphates in 2009, with major miners cutting down on production and even clos-ing plants permanently.
The financial crisis adversely affected the purchasing power of farmers, resulting in substantial decrease in fertiliser prices, such as that of MAP and DAP, which fell by a substantial 75 per cent in 2009 vis-à-vis 2008 price levels. The severe demand crunch and excess inventory stockpiles fur-ther worsened the situation.
In order to minimise inventories, fer-tiliser companies, specifically non-inte-grated producers with lower margins and higher costs cut down on production ca-pacities. Price of Phosphates recorded at US$1200 per tonne in 2008, witnessed a major slump to US$300 per tonne in 2009.
In the midst of the economic crisis, only two regions, Central and South Asia and Eastern Europe witnessed increase in fer-tiliser consumption, while Africa remained at a stable level. Production of fertilisers, in sharp contrast to the consumption pat-tern, continued to display a northward trend even through the recession period, spurred by capacity expansions and new plant installations.
Asia-Pacific – driven by China, India, Australia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka – reigns as the single largest regional market. Latin America, Europe and the US are the other significant phosphate markets worldwide. In terms of growth rate, Asia-Pacific is poised to display the highest CAGR of 3.8 per cent through 2015. The fertilisers market constitutes the largest end-user of phosphates. The segment is also projected to sail ahead at the fastest CAGR of 3.0 per cent through 2015.
From the research report “Phosphates: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. For more details visit: http://www.strategyr.com/Phosphates_Market_Report.asp n
NUTRITION FEATURE
Global phosphates market on the rise
China, the world’s largest phosphate producer, has increased funding for mining exploration.
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Incitec Pivot Fertilisers is Australia’s leader in soil and plant nutrition, investing locally in innovative products and agronomic solutions to help Australian farmers remain globally competitive. www.incitecpivot.com.au
Down to EarthIncitec Pivot Fertilisers and Australian Sugarcane present a series of articles looking at practical ways of sustaining your soils.
Soil fertility can change as a result of nutrient inputs, removal in pro-duce, loss mechanisms and fixation.
The extraordinary wet conditions in many sugar cane areas over the past months are likely to have resulted in nitrogen loss by denitrification and leaching.
Soil testing will be particularly important to help growers answer questions such as:• What has happened to nutrient levels
where soil has been removed or depos-ited?
• Has the rain led to leaching or denitrifi-cation? or,
• Has the rain resulted in increased min-eralisation of plant available nutrients?There is no one single answer to these
questions. Soil testing on a block by block approach is needed to identify soil nutri-ent reserves. This will show how much the soil has available to contribute to the next sugar cane crop and help identify the ferti-lisers needed to fulfil the crop’s nutritional requirements.
Testing can also help farmers avoid over and under application of fertilisers to improve productivity and minimise the potential for inefficiencies.
There are three key aspects to successful soil testing to determine the soil’s fertility status and the re-quirement for fertilisers. These are sampling, analysis and interpretation. Each component is equally important to the accuracy of the entire process.
SamplingThe key to soil sampling is to en-
sure that the sample taken is rep-resentative of the block concerned. This is generally done by taking a sufficiently large number of soil cores (usually 25 or more), so that
the result of an analysis does not change greatly if another set of samples were to be taken from the same area.
Ideally, samples should be taken at least three months prior to planting, especially if it is likely that lime, gypsum or dolomite will be required. Once collected, the sam-ples should be kept cool and despatched to the laboratory as soon as possible.
AnalysisWhen choosing a laboratory to analyse
soil samples, growers also need to ensure that the analytical procedures used are best suited to measuring the plant avail-able nutrient status of the soil and are the accepted industry methods.
Incitec Pivot Fertilisers’ Nutrient Advan-tage Laboratory Services is both NATA accredited and ASPAC certified and has a long history of providing high quality soil and plant analysis to sugar cane growers, industry and research bodies.
Cane growers can choose from three soil analysis packages from Nutrient Ad-
vantage Laboratory Services – Basic, Standard and Complete. Each test com-plies with Reef Regulation requirements.
InterpretationConsider using the Complete test to
ensure your adviser is fully aware of any potential issues. This test includes analysis of nitrate nitrogen, chloride and trace ele-ments, along with phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, silicon, exchangeable cations, or-ganic carbon and pH.
While less comprehensive soil testing may be less expensive, this could mean that not all analyses are being done and you may be missing out on important nu-
tritional information.Local knowledge is also im-
portant because the recommen-dation should take into account factors such as site characteristics (topography, drainage, and soil depth), availability of irrigation, irrigation water quality, yield ex-pectation, the local fertiliser appli-cation techniques and preferred application equipment.
The end result, and perhaps the prime objective of soil testing, is to arrive at a nutrient recom-mendation that is tailored to the specific requirements of individual blocks to benefit sugar cane pro-ductivity. n
Soil sampling after the big wetBy Rob Dwyer, Technical Agronomist – Sugar, Incitec Pivot Fertilisers
Sampling and testing will tell you what has happened to the nutrients in your soil following the deluge.
The Australian electricity industry gen-erated 251 terawatt hours of elec-tricity in the past year to October.
Renewable energy accounted for 8.67 per cent of electricity generated. This is a significant rise from previous years and was mostly due to the increased genera-tion from hydro.
Increased rainfall in key hydro catch-
ments across the country provided a sig-nificant boost in hydro electricity.
The increased capacity of wind power across the country also helped to boost generation.
Although solar power still makes a rela-tively small contribution to the energy mix in Australia, the uptake of the technology has grown rapidly in 2010.
Electricity pricesThe amount of electricity needed in
Australia is projected to grow by nearly
50 per cent between now and 2030. Aus-tralia needs to spend at least $100 billion during the next decade to replace ageing transmission infrastructure and keep up with the increase in peak demand from the use of energy-intensive appliances such as air conditioners and flat-screen televisions.
Electricity prices in New South Wales and Queensland are projected to increase by up to two thirds by 2015 so that our in-creasing energy demands can be met. This additional investment in poles and wires is
*As solar water heating does not produce electricity it has not been included in the total generation figures Electricity generated between October 2009 and 30 September 2010. Source: Clean Energy Council Renewable Energy Database, ABARE 2010, REC Registry, AEMO, IMO.
Nearly two thirds of Australia’s bioenergy generation capacity is from bagasse combustion in the sugar industry.
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the primary driver behind the increase in electricity prices. Using energy more effi-ciently is therefore critical.
Many Australian households face price increases of 40 per cent or more over the next three years to pay for multi-billion dol-lar network upgrades. Tens of billions of dollars are projected to be spent on poles and wires by 2015 due to under-investment in the network dating back two decades.
By comparison, the cost of delivering renewable energy to Australia will be much smaller. Analysis for the Clean Energy Council by ROAM Consulting found that the 20 per cent Renewable Energy Tar-get will lead to a modest rise in electricity prices. It should represent no more than six per cent of the household electricity bill by 2020.
The average Australian household cur-rently spends around three per cent of their disposable income on electricity bills.
Approximately 10,000 MW of clean energy projects are in development across Australia. This means they are currently going through the approvals process or have had a permit granted. Although some of these proposals may not make it to construction, there is a clear pipeline of projects that will help to deliver the na-tional target of 20 per cent renewable en-ergy by 2020.
Bioenergy – 11.5 per cent of total clean energy generation
The current installed capacity of the sector in Australia amounts to 767 MW, or 6.8 per cent of the total renewable ca-pacity. Nearly two thirds of this capacity is from bagasse combustion in the sugar industry, with the second largest contribu-tor being landfill gas. n
FIGURE 3: Australian electricity generation from bioenergy
FIGURE 2: Installed capacity for bioenergy sub sectors by percentage
FIGURE 1: Estimated annual electricity generation
China & Mongolia: The tour will travel into Mongolia and fascinating far western areas of China to see large-scale grain and cotton production along the Old Silk Road. We will also inspect the Three Gorges Dam and other farming and cultural sights in eastern China. (22 day tour departs July 1)
South America: South America is always a popular destination for Australian farmers. Not only is the continent home to arguably the world’s most diverse, interesting and stunning array of cultures and landscapes, South America is booming agriculturally. (24 day tour departs July 26)
Scandinavia: The Vikings struck terror into the hearts of the citizens of the known world a thousand years ago, but these days they are much friendlier. In fact they welcome tourists – and fact finding farmers – and do their best to help them enjoy this part of the world. (21 day tour departs August 26)
2011FarmStudy ToursFor more than 18 years Greenmount Travellers have criss-crossed the globe visiting amazing agricultural, geographical and cultural destinations in China, Russia, South & North Americas, Canada, India, Tibet, Africa, Eastern & Western Europe, Scandinavia, United Kingdom, SE Asia, Japan, The Kimberleys and Nuigini.
We know where to go – and have established excellent farming and agribusiness contacts. We also have valuable experience in dealing with the unique challenges ‘out of the square’ travel presents. This ensures our tours are well organised and are expertly guided by local, trusted operators and our own experienced Greenmount Travel guides.
Express your interest by giving us a call on 07 4659 3555 or email [email protected] or visit www.greenmounttravel.com.au
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The rain in late 2010 and January 2011 was influenced by a dominant La Niña event in the Pacific Ocean. The De-cember 2010 Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) was the highest
December value on record and the highest monthly value since 1973, while other indicators of La Niña also point to the strongest event since at least the mid-1970s. Previous strong La Niña events, such as those of 1955 and 1974, have also been associated with widespread and severe flooding in eastern Australia.
Late November and December 2010 were extremely wet across much of east-ern Australia. All states and territories ex-perienced areas of extremely high rainfall during December 2010.
Many areas in eastern Queensland and central Western Australia, and areas of eastern New South Wales, South Australia and western Victoria experienced their highest December rainfall on record. For Australia as a whole, it was the third-wet-test December on record. This followed an extremely wet spring, the wettest on record for Queensland, New South Wales, eastern Australia and the Murray–Darling Basin.
Four major rain events during late No-vember and December 2010 affected large parts of the eastern states. The heavy December 2010 rain, which fell on already saturated catchments, resulted in major widespread flooding on many riv-ers, especially in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
January 2011 rainfall continued to be heavy across northern parts of Australia, with large areas of Queensland, the North-ern Territory and Western Australia re-cording more than 100 millimetres (mm).
In the first week of January, heavy rain-fall was recorded across large parts of the tropical north, as well as in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia and parts of central Australia. The highest totals, in excess of 200 mm, were recorded near Cairns in Far North Queensland.
A very active monsoon trough produced heavy falls over the tropical north during the week of 10 January. Further south, a
low pressure system and associated trough brought very heavy falls to south-east Aus-tralia.
The heavy rain recorded in many parts of central and southern Queensland in late December 2010 resulted in exceptional flooding, with many rivers reaching record levels. By 23 December, many rivers were already at or near flood level as a result of the rain in preceding weeks.
Rainfall during the following days, on top of the pre-existing wet conditions, re-sulted in major flooding over an extensive area. Almost every river in Queensland, south of the Tropic of Capricorn and east
marketing
Impact of the floods on commoditiesDrawn from ABARES Special Report 21 January 2011
IN brIeF…• The recent flooding in eastern australia is estimated to have reduced agricultural
production by at least $500–$600 million in 2010–11.
• This figure does not include the cost of lost farm infrastructure and assets which may amount to much more.
• There have been significant impacts on the production of fruit, vegetables and crops.
• Losses of livestock reported to date have been small in relation to the national herd and flock. The main impact for livestock appears to have been associated with disruptions to transport and other infrastructure support.
• Fruit and vegetable prices have risen significantly for some products.
• There is considerable scope for fruit and vegetable producers in other regions of australia to respond to flood-induced supply shortages from Queensland and other regions, which may ease upward pressure on prices overall.
• Queensland’s coal exports between December 2010 and March 2011 could be around 15 million tonnes lower than previously anticipated – a reduction in export earnings of around $2–2.5 billion.
• coal prices could be settled at higher levels, partially offsetting the adverse impact on industry revenues.
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of Charleville and Longreach, reached ma-jor flood levels at some stage during the period from 26 November to 7 January, mostly between 23 December and 4 Janu-ary. Properties were inundated in at least 17 towns in Queensland and adjacent bor-der areas of New South Wales, with the largest impacts occurring in Theodore, Dalby, Chinchilla, Emerald, Bundaberg and Rockhampton.
Extreme flooding occurred in the Fitzroy and Condamine–Balonne catchments. In some cases, these flood peaks broke records that had recently been set during the February–March 2010 rainfall event.
The satellite image for 4 January 2011 for central Queensland provides an exam-ple of the extent of the flooding – dark blue areas indicate water, light blue and white are clouds.
RAINFALL OUTLOOkLong-range forecast models (used by
the Bureau of Meteorology) indicate that the La Niña event will persist into autumn 2011, gradually weakening and approach-ing neutral conditions by mid-2011.
La Niña periods are generally associ-ated with above-normal winter, spring and summer rainfall, particularly over eastern and northern Australia. During La Niña periods, tropical cyclone occurrence for northern Australia is typically higher than normal during the cyclone season (Novem-ber–April).
IMPACT ON SUGARThe Australian sugar cane harvest was
severely hampered by excessive rainfall in the latter part of 2010. An estimated three to five million tonnes of sugar cane intended to be harvested in 2010–11 was stood over.
The sugar content of cane was also down sharply in 2010–11 because of the exces-sive rain. Australian sugar production in 2010–11 is estimated to be around 3.6 mil-lion tonnes, 0.9 million tonnes lower than in 2009–10 and the lowest output since 1991–92. While information is not yet available on the impact of recent flooding on sugar cane plantings, the costs of the earlier damage was estimated by ABARES in December to be around $470 million.
Excessive rainfall in the traditional plant-ing period from February to April 2010 also limited new plantings, which would have been harvested in 2011–12. Austral-ian sugar production is forecast to recover to around four million tonnes in 2011–12, although there is still uncertainty about the impact on sugar yields from the cane stood
over from 2010–11 (Editors note – these forecasts were made prior to the arrival of Cyclone Yasi).
While Australian cane growers are ben-efiting from the highest world sugar prices in real terms since the mid-1970s, the reduced harvest has caused financial dif-ficulties for sugar millers and cane grow-ers who sold forward in a rising market.
There could be financial losses for these millers and growers in closing out forward sold positions. To lock in favourable world sugar prices, selling forward was common for the 2010–11 cane crop.
ABARES 2011, The impact of recent flood events on commodities, ABARES Special Report, Canberra, January. Contact: www.abares.gov.au n
marketing
QSL reLeaSeS SeaSON uPDaTeQSL has released a 2010 Season update which assesses how the extreme La Nina
weather pattern affected raw sugar volumes in 2010, how QSL’s sales and marketing strategies operated this season, what steps QSL took to mitigate the impacts of the crop reduction and what solutions industry is working on to manage the revenue impacts from the wet weather.
The 2010 season has been testing with the dramatic 25 per cent drop in raw sugar export volumes occurring very late in the year. The entire industry faces ongoing challenges as we move into the 2011 season, including managing the impacts of cyclone yasi, but the Season update outlines some of the lessons that can be taken forward.
Despite the challenging conditions, QSL has worked hard to reduce the cash flow impact of the smaller crop to millers and growers while also preserving the integrity of Queensland’s reputation as a reliable supplier of high quality sugar.
The focus now is on helping mills to understand their options for managing the revenue impacts of the shortfall in volumes, and working constructively with the industry to identify ways to improve pooling systems and processes for the future. To download a copy of the 2010 Season update, visit www.qsl.com.au.
Cyclone Yasi update
cyclone yasi devastated many regions in North Queensland, with Innisfail and Tully particularly hard hit. It is still too early to be able to fully assess the impact of the cyclone on the 2011 crop, but QSL’s expectation at this stage is that it will be significantly reduced.
QSL will be working closely with industry stakeholders over the coming months in relation to production forecasts for the 2011 season. QSL internal modelling shows that with the combined affect of cyclone yasi and the expectation of above average rain, QSL exports in 2011 could be as low as 2.0 to 2.2 million tonnes.
The saga of Ian’s experiences as Sales Manager of Lough Equipment Pty. Ltd. and the big Whitlock loader backhoes contin-ues, with a new challenge on the horizon. Its name was JCB!
JCBFollowing their perusal by Eric Lough,
the 1964 editions of the British construc-tion equipment magazines routinely found their way onto my cluttered desk. For months we had been noting the dramatic escalation throughout the UK and Europe of the promotion and resultant rampant marketing penetration of JCB loader back-hoes.
We also noted that JCB had embarked on a global expansion of establishing im-porters in North America and the Asia Pacific region. Rather ominously we also detected that Whitlock sales nose dived wherever JCB established a toehold.
So who and what was behind this JCB phenomenon?
In 1945, Joseph Cyril Bamford con-structed a farm trailer in his tiny lockup garage, using steel sheeting that had been part of an air raid shelter, which he welded together with a second hand 50 shilling welder! He presented it on market day in his Staffordshire village of Uttoxeter and sold it to a local farmer for the princely
sum of £90. Over the next few hectic years of manufacturing, firstly in a coal yard and then in an abandoned cheese factory, his range expanded to front end loaders fitted mainly to Fordson tractors. In 1953 the first JCB loader backhoe was unveiled.
By 1964 JCB backhoes were the world’s number one in the sales charts! A phenomenal achievement unparalleled in the construction machinery industry. Joseph Cyril Bamford was a truly remark-able entrepreneur!
A NEW DIRECTIONBack at Artarmon, Eric Lough was
rightfully concerned that one day soon, JCB loader backhoes would appear in Aus-tralia and this could decimate our Whitlock sales. Therefore with considerable vision and (dare I say) cunning, he surreptitiously put out feelers to JCB in England.
In point of fact, we had been becom-ing increasingly disenchanted with our Whitlock franchise. Eric Tittley, the Aus-tralian Whitlock factory representative had his office at Dooralong, of all places! In 1964 the Dooralong telephone exchange only functioned a few hours each day. Even in the dedicated ‘open’ hours, if the exchange lady happened to be out feed-ing the chooks or had fallen asleep while watching a repeat of Dragnet, then Mr Tittley was off the radar.
Not a happy situation, as all communica-tions with the factory had to be channelled through him. Accordingly, being unable to contact Mr Tittley could prove extremely frustrating, particularly if he was urgently required by Gib Gospal, the Lough serv-ice manager, to send a cable to the UK to chase up a rapidly mushrooming log of warranty claims, or to locate a missing consignment of desperately needed spare parts.
Harry Wilson was the JCB Marketing Director. In response to a letter from Eric Lough, he had cabled ahead and set up an appointment to meet us at Artarmon. Fol-lowing a round table discussion, we knew he was our type of individual. We warmed to his ready smile and were impressed by his grasp of the construction equipment situation in Australia, even though this was his first visit to the Antipodes. His enthu-siasm for the JCB product was persuasive and infectious. Further, he was not a pre-varicator, but obviously a man of rapid de-cision.
I cannot recall the actual time frame involved, but in due course a franchise agreement was signed with JCB. Cartons of lavish brochures and promotional mate-rial began arriving. These had to be hastily hidden away in the back room if Mr Tittley was due to arrive, as no announcements
February–March 2011 Australian Sugarcane — 23
Tractor loader/backhoes remembered – Part two
By Ian M. Johnston
CLASSIC TRACTOR TALES
Lough sales rep. Ian Barrett, supervising the loading of a JCB. (PHOTO: IMJ) A JCB 3 working in a river bed. (PHOTO: Courtesy JCB)
24 — Australian Sugarcane February–March 2011
had been made regarding our new direc-tion. Well, I mean to say, we still had a few Whitlock machines to quit. Although Mr Tittley started complaining about the lack of forward orders for new Whitlock stock. All’s fair in love and war, they say.
Harry Wilson had investigated Lough Equipment thoroughly, he told us later, and was impressed by our company’s dy-namism. So not only was he acquiring a switched on Australian distributor, but was also eliminating Whitlock as a sales oppo-nent. Although the latter did not actually eventuate as Ken Coles Pty Ltd, a backhoe hire organisation, picked up the Whitlock agency, which soldiered on for another few years.
THE PRESS REPORTEric Lough instructed me to prepare a
press release, which was circulated in Oc-tober 1965. It read as follows:
Following 12 months market research and thorough investigation of excavator (backhoe) trends throughout Europe and America, the Directors of Lough Equip-ment Pty. Ltd. have announced that on October 15 1965 their company will relinquish the Australian Whitlock fran-
chise and will commence the distribu-tion of JCB equipment.
It is with great reluctance that Lough Equipment finds it necessary to aban-don the Whitlock association in favour of JCB, as it is not possible to be associ-ated with a product over the years, to foster its development and promote its sales, without creating an attachment to-wards it. Notwithstanding this, it has al-ways been this company’s policy to offer the very best equipment available to the Australian earthmoving industry, and in order to continue this earnest desire we have entered into mutually satisfactory arrangements with J.C. Bamford (Exca-vators) Ltd, the world’s largest manufac-turer of rubber tyred excavators.
A few weeks prior to the press release, Eric Tittley was advised of the state of af-fairs. Frankly, I felt sorry for him. He was actually a decent but naive gentleman of the old school. He was an accountant by training with no expertise in market-ing. Seemingly the wrong man for the job, in this cut throat machinery business. Tragically, some time later he was found drowned in the surf at Surfers Paradise.
JCB DAYSThere were no less than five backhoes in
the JCB range, all of which were equipped with front loaders, apart from the JCB 1, which had a front mounted back filling blade. All were fitted with lock up cabins and all were marketed by Lough Equip-ment in Australia.
The JCB 1 was an unorthodox light-weight machine, powered by a Petter 20 h.p. diesel.
The JCB 2B was aimed at the Massey Ferguson 220 market and was mounted on a modified 44 hp Nuffield tractor. It had the amazing feature of being able to have the backhoe disconnected in two minutes! During a demonstration to the Sydney Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board, one of the senior engineers failed to pay attention, and when he refocussed on what was going on, he was shocked to find the backhoe had ‘broken off’ from the tractor. The laugh was on him!
The JCB 3 was bigger capacity than the 2B but mounted on the same tractor, with-out the advantage of being able to be dis-connected. It seemed to me to be a misfit
Lough Equipment service van on site at 1966 Engineer’s Field Day. Pictured (l. to r.) is service manager Gib Gospal and Sales Rep. Bill Flett. (PHOTO: IMJ)
Bill O’Connor, Lough demonstrator, flaunting the power of JCB hydraulics at The Orange Field Day, 1966. (PHOTO: IMJ)
The state of the art JCB factory near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. The main frontage is a third of a mile long. It is but one of 18 factories scattered around the world. (PHOTO: Courtesy JCB) The powerful but ungainly 4C at work. (PHOTO: Courtesy JCB)
in the JCB range. Others agreed and only a few were sold.
The JCB 3C was the jewel in the JCB stable. Mounted on an industrialised 60 h.p. Nuffield, it was a brilliantly capable and purposeful looking unit. Within two years of its launch in 1963 over 3000 had been sold.
The JCB 4C was a massive machine that could certainly pull out the dirt, but it was unwieldy and even dangerous to drive on the road. It was also too big to fit on a tip truck – a major disadvantage. The 60 hp Nuffield was hard pressed to support the bulk of the unit.
In 1965 JCB introduced its stylish and capable 360 degree slew, track type hy-draulic excavator – the JCB 7, powered by a Ford 96 hp diesel engine. Upon its arrival in Australia, it was claimed to be the most technically advanced excavator of its type. It represented a new experience for us at Loughs. For example, getting one in and out of the workshop, which was below ground level, proved a real challenge.
The first JCB 7 sold, was purchased by Tipping Bros. of Chatswood. Carlotta Street was blocked for over an hour as we struggled to load it onto a side load low loader, much to the irritation of scores of vehicles that were obliged to back out onto The Pacific Highway. Eventually it got un-derway but its height resulted in around 20 power wires being torn from their poles, all the way along Carlotta street. The low loader driver was blissfully unaware of the mayhem he was creating and the tangle of wires that trailed behind his rig.
FINALLYThe Lough association with JCB was a
happy one. Joe Bamford sent his 21 year old son Anthony to Sydney for an acquaint-ance with the Australian earthmoving scene.
As was our custom with all visiting in-dustry dignitaries, Margery and I invited him to our home for dinner. He was ac-companied by an old school friend, who was working his way round Australia and was currently employed as washer-up in a Kings Cross restaurant. Imagine our sur-prise when we learnt he was The Right Honourable Jeremy Sykes, the youngest son of a prominent English peer!
Anthony proved to be a likeable young man with a keen sense of humour. Margery originally came from Staffordshire, there-fore she and Anthony got on famously and waxed on about villages and watering holes familiar to them both which, at that time, meant nothing to me.
Today, Sir Anthony Bamford is a multi billionaire and Chairman of JCB since 1976, following the retirement of his fa-ther Joseph Cyril, who died in 2001. Quite remarkably JCB remains a family owned business, with 18 factories spread
throughout the UK, Brazil, Germany, North and South America, China and In-dia. A range of 250 products are produced by a work force of around 7000 and sold into 150 countries.
JCB regularly sponsors numerous chari-table and research activities, plus vintage car race events, around the world. In 2010 The JCB Academy, a new secondary school located in Rocester, UK, welcomed its first pupils.
In 2006 the JCB Dieselmax, propelled by twin JCB diesel engines, broke the diesel engine world land speed record by achieving a staggering 529 kmh.
In conclusion, although my involvement was but a miniscule cog in the history of JCB, I remember fondly my brief associa-tion with possibly the most enterprising and successful construction equipment manufacturer the world has ever known. Yes, these were good days. n
February–March 2011 Australian Sugarcane — 25
IaN’S MySTery TracTOr QuIZQuestion: Can you identify this grand tractor?Clue: It certainly is not American – or British – or Italian!Degree of Difficulty: What is the weather going to do? It is that hard!Answer: See page 56.
The JCB 7C being loaded with considerable difficulty onto Tipping Bros. side loading float. Eric Lough can be seen on the left, supervising the procedure. See text. (PHOTO: IMJ)
Joseph Cyril Bamford, one of the world’s most dynamic entrepreneurs, in a contemplative mood at his office desk. (PHOTO: Courtesy JCB)
26 — Australian Sugarcane February–March 2011
TABLELANDSWeather
Unlike the previous two wet seasons, storm activity this season started in early November and hasn’t stopped. This has saved growers a huge cost as they have not needed to irrigate during the past four months. However, irrigation will again be necessary to finish the crop off after the wet season has come to an end in March.
With rainfall to date predominately from storm activity, growing conditions have been ideal with hot steamy sunny mornings paving the way for storms in the late afternoon and early evening. These conditions have resulted in excellent crop growth with lodging of some more ad-vanced crops occurring by late January – a rare sight in this district. Surprisingly, there appears to be minimal crop damage from cyclone ‘Yasi’ compared to cyclone ‘Larry’ and it is doubtful that there will be any dis-cernible impact on crop yield.
With over 1000 mm of rainfall so far this wet season (Mareeba AP), the water level in Tinaroo dam topped the spillway in early January. With water still flowing over the spillway, the likelihood is that the dam will be at 100 per cent capacity by the end of June, thus ensuring full water allocations for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 sugarcane crops
CropEarly estimates indicate a crop of
680,000 tonnes is achievable and it is not out of the question that the 2008 record crush of 690,216 tonnes could be exceeded this year. With coastal crops impacted by the horrendous wet weather during harvest last year plus the ravages of cyclone ‘Yasi’, a shortened harvest on the coast is likely. This is likely to create logisti-cal issues when it comes to processing the Tableland syrup.
Approved seed plotWith the Queensland Government pro-
ceeding with the sale of the Southedge
Research Station, the approved seed plot was relocated to the Bundaberg Sugar farm at Arriga. Ten varieties will be availa-ble from the new plot. Another five prom-ising clones are propagated for distribution to growers in 2012 – provided they man-age to jump all the selection hurdles. Only varieties that are intermediate to resistant to sugarcane smut are available from the plot.
Drewe Burgess BSES Tablelands
February 18, 2011
MOSSMAN2011 has arrived and continued on
from where 2010 finished off. Over the last few weeks the devastating images that we have all witnessed, of the major flood-ing in Central and Southern Queensland and even down to Northern New South Wales, has had a major effect on people’s lives and the sugar industry. The last thing the sugar industry needed was for a cat-egory 5 cyclone to hit the northern part of the state.
The follow on effects of these major weather events will make the 2011 crush-ing season very difficult.
For the Mossman region we dodged a bullet with only a few isolated farms re-ceiving damage to some of their early cut and plant cane blocks. The variety that has been reported to have received the most damage is Q231 with broken tops, there has also been reports of Q187 with simi-lar damage. The persistent rain in the days that followed cyclone Yasi crossing caused flood damage to low lying fields.
At the end of last year and at the start of 2011 the Mossman region managed to receive a few dry weeks. This enabled all farmers to complete their fertilising and most of their weed and rodent control.
While it is still early in the 2011 sea-son and we still don’t know the full extent of damage to this crop I am hopeful of a crop similar to last year, around 530,000 tonnes.
Some of the damage sustained to the 2011 crop includes:• Excessive rainfall;• Flooding;• Water logging;• 2010 wet harvesting conditions; and,• Lack of sunlight.
Local farmers are starting to receive the result of their Environment Risk Manage-ment Plans. It appears that most farmers in the Mossman region are receiving ap-proval for three years with the option to refine their plan to enable them a five year approval.
Local growers are also reminded that a Species Management Plan for rodent control has commenced and will provide growers with better options to control rats in cane crops and surrounding harbourage areas.
Under the new Species Manage-ment Plan a damage mitigation permit is now issued automatically to Productivity Services. The baiting window has been extended by three months starting on Oc-tober 1 through to the end of June. This extended window of opportunity allows ef-fective baiting for the climbing rat which can often cause problems between March and June. Under the plan a grower is re-
Districtreports...
Brisbane ●
● CairnsAtherton TablelandMossman–Mulgrave
Innisfail–TullyHerbert
BurdekinProserpine
Mackay–Sarina
Bundaberg
Maryborough
New South Wales
Rocky Point
quired to ensure an integrated approach with effective weed control in both crop and harbourage. He or she must assess the extent of any rat problem before baiting, and only bait with registered baits, within label restrictions. For more information please contact your local Productivity Services advisor.
Right across the sugar the industry the effects of natural disasters have taken their toll on growers and we only hope that the year finishes off better then it started
Gerard Puglisi Northern Region Director
February 18, 2011
INNISFAIIL/TULLYThe Tully region is a scene of devas-
tation. The destruction is like that which cyclone Larry wreaked upon Innisfail in 2006, only over a greater area. The dam-age to farms and townships is immense and will take years to remedy.
Early cane crops are blown down and broken but it is hoped that a good amount will be millable. Late plant and ratoons are badly smashed; their viability unknown. Whatever is millable will be affected by dead cane, suckers and layering, so it will be some time before a useful crop assess-ment can be made.
In the Tully region the MIS forests are smashed off head high leaving as few as ten leafless trees per acre, like stranded matchsticks. The tax subsidised MIS in-dustry has taken a lot of land out of sugar production in recent years – events of late demonstrate the enormous risk facing such schemes with their inability to regenerate quickly like sugar cane and horticulture.
Innisfail/Babinda has some badly smashed cane and farmers are saying the 2011 harvest will be badly affected. As one farmer remarked; “This time round, Innisfail copped a bullet but Tully copped a missile – a direct hit.”
Mulgrave has suffered blown down crops; the Tableland area seems to have escape cane crop damage and the Moss-man district has been very lucky with mi-nor damage in the Mossman River Valley.
Heavy rain is hampering clean-up op-erations as the area comes into the tradi-tional wet month of March.
The Maryborough Sugar Factory clo-sure of Babinda mill has caused angst among employees and farmers. Haulage distances raises concern over cut to crush delays and the scheduling and reliability of rail transport infrastructure. The rail net-
work is a single line and will need to cope with full rakes and return traffic.
ACFA has commenced contract nego-tiations with Maryborough Sugar Factory.
Last Friday Tully Sugar shareholders narrowly voted down a special resolution to amend the constitution and lift the 20 per cent individual shareholding limit.
The vote has highlighted division be-tween shareholders attracted by the $41 per share offer by international sugar trader Bunge and those wanting to form a company of millers committed to supply-ing Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL).
We are currently in a time of unprec-edented international interest in Australian sugar milling assets, a good news story for our industry which needs to be managed carefully.
It is true that the Tully region has been hard hit by cyclone Yasi and could use the cash generated by the proposed buyout but in the longer term will this be the best option?
Sugar assets in the hands of the trade will ultimately serve the interests of the trade. That may align with the immedi-ate needs of shareholders and there lo-cal economies but will that best serve the longer term interests of their farming busi-nesses?
There may be other ways to better align the longer term interests of the region and its growers in the context of a strong Aus-tralian sugar industry. The options should be explored!
The formation of a block of grower-owned milling entities is one way to pre-serve growers’ interests and to retain the advantage of pooling our sugar and retain-ing our markets through QSL. It is also es-sential to provide forward pricing. Without grouping together there can be no QSL and without QSL there can be no pooling and forward pricing would be difficult to fund.
Grouping together also increases the efficiency of the bulk sugar terminals, whereas a fragmented industry may cause issues with terminal access and associated costs.
The grower owned mills have 60 days from last Friday to put a proposal together. It is now decision time for grower control-led structures in the Australian Sugar In-dustry – perhaps the last chance for the Australian industry to retain ownership.
John Blanckensee ACFA Innisfail Director
February 18, 2011
hERBERTIn the Herbert, cyclone damage, fol-
lowed by flooding has put out communica-tions and affected the town water supply. Cane crops are lodged and have been flooded. It is yet too early to fully assess the damage. Piles of green leaves have ac-cumulated on cane crops, foreshadowing a difficult harvest.
BSES’s Rob Magarey and Adam Royal have been assessing on-farm crop dam-age.
MIS forestry has been badly affected: in the Herbert area, African mahogany trees are knocked over, leaving some smaller Teak trees standing. Continual rain is com-pounding clean-up efforts.
Carol Mackee ACFA Herbert Director
February 18, 2011
BURDEkINWell, if 2010 provided ‘difficult’
weather, 2011 has capped it off with one catastrophic event after another. With heart-breaking reports of the flood devas-tation starting the year, Cyclones Anthony and Yasi, flooding and heatwaves in the southern states and the WA bushfires to follow, I’m not alone in hoping things set-tle down for the rest of the decade at least and that all those affected will be assisted and supported throughout the recovery and re-build periods.
Scheduled meetings with QSL and BSES have been postponed due to local conditions following Cyclone Yasi. Meet-ing dates will be rescheduled as soon as possible.
Cyclone damage locally appears to be less than expected, from winds that have uprooted massive trees across the district and damaged structures to varying degrees. While cane has been flattened, most ap-pears to be leaning, rather than snapped, with some exceptions in localised areas. If the sunshine and humidity continues, much of the cane should straighten and recover, hopefully with losses minimised.
For those growers who have suffered crop, structural or machinery losses, Yasi has been one more blow to an already bruised industry and community. For our northern neighbours, Yasi unleashed her full fury and has decimated many producers and their homes, businesses and commu-nities. The effects have been widespread and devastating. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be directed towards their re-
February–March 2011 Australian Sugarcane — 27
DISTRICT REPORTS
28 — Australian Sugarcane February–March 2011
covery and rebuilding in the months and years to come.
Governments and industry representa-tives need to be mindful of the average age of farmers and their ongoing finan-cial losses, in assessments of clean up assistance requirements and community recovery provisions for future events of this magnitude. Many of these communi-ties have suffered one too many blows for them to recover readily this time.
Recent reports of closure of Babinda Mill, QR redundancies and difficulties in the dairy industry are compounding the crippling effects of weather on communi-ties and are a direct result of deregulation and corporatisation of our essential infra-structure and primary industries. Govern-ments and industry must wake up and correct the haemorrhaging in our rural and regional areas with sound policy and infra-structure. We’ve been ‘out of sight and out of mind’ when funding is allocated, for far too long.
Last year’s recurring flooding resulted in many growers being unable to complete planting or fallow cropping of legumes, etc. in 2010, thereby resulting in further negative financial impacts for canefarm-ers. A plan and local list of available wet weather gear must be formulated to deal with adverse weather issues and fortnightly meetings with Sucrogen have commenced, to address shortcomings from the previous season. Harvesting and milling structures generally proved to be quite inadequate to deal with the wet paddock conditions last year and 2011 is unlikely to see the crop crushed within an optimum season length without a serious effort to improve harvesting, transport and milling capacity. Growers and harvester operators are en-couraged to attend these meetings to pro-vide input into the discussions also. Any plan must have as its focus, a clear intent to harvest the full crop potential for the district within the optimum 18–20 week period, rather than continue to extend sea-son lengths to accommodate inadequacies in milling capacity or availability.
Total tonnages of harvested cane in the Burdekin for 2010 were more than 3 million tonnes short of the available crop due to adverse weather, recurrent mill breakdowns, strikes, lack of wet weather infrastructure and inadequate availability of suitable sidings for the wet weather gear to operate on and a bin fleet capable of transporting the crop.
A final agreement was not finalised for
last year’s harvest, underlining the failure of the deregulated industry and lack of compulsory arbitration in current legisla-tion. 2010 season proved the necessity of inclusion of ccs underpinning past optimal harvesting dates as an incentive towards higher mill performance standards. Every collective negotiations since deregulation of the industry has resulted in the agree-ments being signed under duress, confir-mation of a lack of market power in the farming sector. Further contract negotia-tions will commence in the near future.
Sugarcane farmers and industry par-ticipants are invited to attend a regional SRDC meeting in Ayr on Tuesday, 15th March. The meeting will provide an op-portunity to see how your SRDC levies have been invested, hear about the R & D results; meet SRDC staff, board members and other sugar industry participants. The meeting will conclude with complimentary pizza and drinks.
Where: The Burdekin Delta Cinemas at 145–149 Queen Street, Ayr.
When: Tuesday evening, March 15 from 4:30 to 6:30pm.
Contact Kara Billsborough at [email protected] or Ph: 07-3210 0495 to register.
Canefarmers are encouraged to attend the AGM and Conference to be held in Cairns on March 23.
Margaret Menzel ACFA Burdekin Director
February 18, 2011
SOUThERN REGIONSouthern region flood report
Bundaberg and Maryborough cities suf-fered inundation to a degree not seen in a generation. Although not record flood levels, no one is looking to break records in this category. The dislocation of every aspect of life was a reality check for most of us. The media coverage so far has made it unnecessary to fill a Regional report with anecdote, so I will try to give a value to this natural disaster. The 2010 harvest finished incomplete. 2010 spring plant-ing was also incomplete and then a loss of up to 40 per cent of the area which was planted. Ratoons are behind for 2011 due to an inability to apply fertiliser in a timely manner. Therefore 2011 crop estimate is lower by a painful amount. One ACFA member with farming and harvesting inter-ests can justify a gross income reduction of $900,000 by the end of 2011–12 finan-
cial year. The point to remember is that his business did not actually go under water. This figure is a summation of the effects of all the events over 12 months!
While not liking to put these types of forecasts to the fore I feel it is in our inter-ests to see the true position.
An unusual effect of the Burnett River flood is the disruption to the loading of bulk raw sugar from Bundaberg Sugar Ter-minal. The amount of natural debris that can be seen from the bank of the river is amazing so it is no surprise that the river bed has changed its shape and depth. Smaller vessels may be the only way to ship sugar out for some time. I would im-agine that getting that sugar on the water at almost any cost has become vital to hold our industry’s market share. Meanwhile we await the dredging of the now famous ‘swing basin’ at the port.
To irrigation. Yes some growers in ISIS are watering: Since the flood, little rain has fallen and with good growing condi-tions water will be viable. Water Pricing is continuing along with the QCA Enquiry, but with a few delays due to the flooding.
At the ISIS Productivity Limited AGM, the question of the future direction of such a successful organisation was discussed. The “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” of the Chairman and Board was well received by the members.
Irrespective of if or when R&D in the sugar industry takes a change in direction, Chairman Neil Kingston felt that the usual orderly manner of the Board would see the I.P.L. well into the future.
Now we are looking to Autumn plant-ing in the Southern Region, so I guess I had better check the oil and water and the operators of the new satellite guidance unit and make a start on the 2012 crop.
Mike Hetherington ACFA Southern Region Director
February 18, 2011
NEw SOUTh wALESAlong with my fellow members of ACFA
in NSW, I was pleased to host a recent visit and meetings with the Chair, CEO and board members of ACFA in Harwood, Broadwater, and Condong mill areas.
According to the feedback, those at-tending were very pleased and the interac-tive meeting seems to be the forum that growers wish to have, rather than a long line of guest speakers who speak at you rather than with you.
Cylone YasiFollowing cylone yasi, north Queensland farmers are trying
to repair their shattered properties. cyclone yasi and associated flooding has once more tested the resolve of far northern Queenslanders. With the 2010 season incomplete in harvest, plant, nutrition and weed control, we needed everything to go right in order to salvage the situation – it was not to be! In many cases the significant stand over crop has suffered severe damage, reminding us all of the risks associated with stand over crops and the need to conduct an efficient crushing season with minimal delays from mechanical failure and industrial action. unseasonable weather cannot be avoided but in some cases its impact can be reduced, if other factors do not hold up the season.
These events raise further questions over the efficacy of a high level of participation in sugar price hedging and any subsequent effect on the seasonal pool. recently, milling companies agreed on a much awaited scheme to soften the financial damage to farmers caused by the unseasonable rainfall of late 2010, which brought an early close to the harvest.
The difficult 2010 season has led to a shortage of seed cane to plant in 2011. There will need to be a massive replanting program drawing seed cane from every available area, similar to the orange rust replant ten years ago.
Federal and State Governments must quickly implement a singular, transparent, no-nonsense, effective rebuilding program, combining grants and interest relief for farmers, harvesters and small businesses and their employees.
Getting it right, this time, is a challenge that must not fail!
Last chance for grower ownership of Australian industry
recently Tully Sugar shareholders narrowly voted down a special resolution to amend the constitution and lift the 20 per cent individual shareholding limit.
The vote has highlighted division between shareholders attracted by the $41 per share offer by international sugar trader bunge and
those wanting to form a company of millers committed to supplying Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL).
We are currently in a time of unprecedented international interest in australian sugar milling assets, a good news story for our industry which needs to be managed carefully.
It is true that the Tully region has been hard hit by cyclone yasi and could use the cash generated by the proposed buyout but in the longer term will this be the best option?
Sugar assets in the hands of the trade will ultimately serve the interests of the trade. That may align with the immediate needs of shareholders and their local economies but will that best serve the longer term interests of their farming businesses?
There may be other ways to better align the longer term interests of the region and its growers in the context of a strong australian sugar industry. The options should be explored!
The formation of a block of grower-owned milling entities is one way to preserve growers’ interests and to retain the advantage of pooling our sugar and retaining our markets through QSL. It is also essential to provide forward pricing. Without grouping together there can be no QSL and without QSL there can be no pooling and forward pricing would be difficult to fund.
Grouping together also increases the efficiency of the bulk sugar terminals, whereas a fragmented industry may cause issues with terminal access and associated costs.
The grower owned mills have 60 days from last Friday to put a proposal together. It is now decision time for grower controlled structures in the australian Sugar Industry – perhaps the last chance for the australian industry to retain ownership.
Don Murday ACFA Chairman
acFa chaIrMaN’S cOMMeNT
gave updates on sugar politics, pricing of sugar, mill performance and closures and the interest being shown by overseas com-panies in the Australian industry.
Those present had the opportunity to speak with and hear updates from regional directors Gerard Puglisi from the north-ern region, Michael Hetherington from the southern region and CEO of ACFA, Stephen Ryan who grew up on a Clarence cane farm.
The feedback from these meetings has been excellent with growers making com-ments like, I find out more about the Aus-tralian and Global sugar industry in one meeting of ACFA than I do in a year from all my other information sources.
Like our colleagues in almost all sugar cane growing regions of Australia, we have had a tough year in NSW in 2010.
Cane planting was way below normal in the three river districts with some grow-
ers having planted twice and lost the plant cane both times. They now face up to a third planting in the spring of 2011. Some, due to wet weather, did not get a window in which to plant at all. I guess, in retro-spect, they were the lucky ones!
The NSW industry has joined the sub-mission to both state and Federal govern-ments for a one-off grant to help growers get cane back in the ground for 2012 at Condong and for 2012–13 in Harwood and Broadwater.
The success of this submission is para-mount to the NSW industry getting back on its feet.
Growers would only receive funding for planting over and above the area that they normally plant. For example, say a grower normally plants 20 hectares and this year will have to plant 40 hectares, then the funding would be available for 20 hectares. Of course this is provided that the State
and Federal Government agree to provide the funding grant.
Another major area for concern is the availability of planting material. For this year, much of the crop is very small and some growers will have no plants at all.
The NSW industry is surveying growers at the moment to see whether they have plants for themselves and if they have plants available for others.
Some of the cane that sat in water for many weeks in December and January has now shot in the eyes making at least the bottom 300 mm of the stalk useless for planting, to say we have some challenges for 2011 would be an understatement, but with a bit of innovation I am confident we will get through it. I am sure we are all look-ing forward to a better season this year.
Robert Quirk ACFA New South Wales Director
February 18, 2011
30 — Australian Sugarcane February–March 2011
I don’t know about you but in my neck of the woods the drought has well and truly broken. Anyone I know who has
anything to do with nature and its water ways will tell you that any aquatic system needs a periodic good flushing. Mind you there’s a difference between a good flush-ing and dumping half the nation in the Pacific.
I don’t know how to express the grief and the loss of these past few weeks but I do know that we as a people, like our land will endure. Just as we will never forget those we lost we won’t forget the lessons learnt.
Now, with our waterways turbid and polluted, our bays and estuaries too thin to plough and almost fresh enough to drink what is the committed fisho’ going to do?
Naturally there are boats to maintain, reels to service and gear to overhaul and if your handy at the tying vice you can knock up enough flies to get you going when things improve, but there is only so much make and mend you can do.
I’m probably better off than most be-cause I get to travel and fish pretty much all year round, so when times get slow and
cabin fever threatens to get a grip I slip a CD in the iMac and take a 24” high reso-lution trip down memory lane. It’s very comforting to know how quickly a few well choses images from past adventures
can put a bit of pressure back in a deflated spirit.
A PROMISE IS A PROMISEI’ve written before about my old mate
who was always ‘Gunnado’ many things – including the big fishing trip up North. We planned a beauty, he got me to fix him up with some good gear, and then, as these things can happen, he went and died be-fore he got it done. I promised myself I would do the big one for him.
For those of you who suffered through the lead up to what’s become known as the ‘Adventures of Gunnado’, I’m happy to report that the trip to The Cape was all the adventure I’d hoped it would be. I can honestly say it was the adventure of a lifetime, which is really something because I’m the first to admit my life is one big ad-venture – and I learnt heaps.
Firstly, the old adage ‘hope for the best but prepare for the worst’ is probably one of the best pieces of advice any travelling fisho can have in out-of-the way places. Travelling as a solo vehicle I certainly made sure I had all the bases covered, in fact the only piece of recovery gear I didn’t use was the high lift jack.
FISHING
I’ve gone and done what we were ‘Gunnado’
By Phil Jackson — Fly, Tye and Tackle
Cray for dinner.
Bridge crossing on the way to Vriyla Point.
Actually, we didn’t exactly travel by our-selves. The road to The Cape looked like one long continuous dust plume with most of Victoria trying to do the round trip in the school holidays.
Unlike most of my fellow travellers we were lucky to be able to pick our camps and choose how long we stayed. The east coast was a must do, but a waste of time. The only time the wind wasn’t blowing 30 knots was when it was gusting to 50 and the beaches were totally unfishable.
IDYLLIC – AND EvEN BETTERThe west coast on the other hand was
God’s gift to the travelling adventurer. The beach at Pennefather was one of the most idyllic camps I’ve ever experienced, but my all time favourite would have to be Vrilya Point.
Camping right on the water’s edge and tucked away under the casuarinas, the panoramic seascape was truly spectacu-lar with the exposed rocks looking like a massive display of installation art with little walkways leading out onto the sand flats at low tide.
On the run-in the barra would herd the bait into the shallows between the rocks and any small silver lure guaranteed a hammering – and not just from barra. Coral trout, queen fish and estuary cod all competed for the little silver Toby.
I felt like the ultimate hunter-gatherer. I’d get up at first light, kick the fire into life and put the coffee percolator on the grill. I’d ration myself to one – or perhaps two – rich buttery home made biscuits that went so well with the strong black coffee as I watched the sun come up.
Massive schools of bait fish careered through the open water in front of the camp and when they got close enough I’d swap my coffee mug for a spinning rod and catch dinner.
The beaches were littered with flotsam and jetsam from most of Asia but there were some real treasures amongst the tan-gled netting. We were at Vrilya for seven days and by the time we left I’d made the perfect hammock from some of the miles of fishing net washed up on the beach.
Previous high tides had stacked fire-wood conveniently along the beach and the little chainsaw I got for Fathers’ Day soon sorted out anything too big to drag home.
Amongst the driftwood were millions of cigarette lighters with the strikers rusted out.
My favourite pastime was collecting lu-minous squid jigs. There were thousands of these brilliant little lures all along the high water mark. After the first hundred or so I’d become a little fussy and only collected those in the best condition, which left me with a two gallon bucket literally overflow-ing. By the time we got to Bamaga I was pretty much over moving the bucket every time I unpacked the vehicle so I gave them to a bunch of kids fishing on the wharf.
The punt affectionately known as ‘Rhymeswith’ spent most of its trip on the camper but when it was needed it was in-valuable – and the little 8hp Yami never missed a beat.
Not fussy, just fishing for foodNot only did the trip fulfil a life long
dream for me and fulfil a promise to an old mate but it also got me back in touch with real subsistence fishing. When you don’t have to fish to eat it’s easy to be a snob and only fish fly or lures but fussy fisher-men go hungry. It was good not to just fish for fun but fish for a good reason, like eat-ing. Don’t be fooled, the north is a fisher-man’s mecca but you still have to get out there and do your bit.
We met a lot of people who, like us, were living their dream but two of the most interesting, helpful and generous of all were both retired cane farmers.
February–March 2011 Australian Sugarcane — 31
FISHING
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PHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSONPHIL JACKSON
fly fish
Make your next holiday a fly fishing adventure in the most beautiful country on earth. Catering for the experienced fly fisherman and novice alike, my New Zealand fly fishing holidays will give you a life time of memories.
If you'd like to mix in a little golf and sight seeing, I can do that too. Come with me for the eight days of relaxation you've promised yourself all year.
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Bill had retired and moved to Bundaberg but ‘helped his sons out until the cutting started’ and then he and the wife headed north. Fortunately our paths crossed at Prin-cess Charlotte Bay because Bill was a wealth of helpful hints and local information.
Phil had retired and moved to River Head at Hervey Bay. He and his lovely wife were seasoned travellers and spent about three months of each year at Vrilya Point. Not only was Phil an authority on everything local but he also rekindled my long lost love of cast netting.
My new best friend was a local guy we’ll call Dave who showed me how to catch mud crabs by shining a torch into the wa-ter at a low angle. The crabs follow the light up onto the bank and we just picked
them up. Dave and I were sharing a cold one around the campfire one night, after a crab session, when I brought up the subject of the wild rivers proposal. I was surprised when Dave, who, like most people in The Cape, wears a couple of hats including the ranger’s, didn’t seem overly concerned.
“Well it all comes down to knowledge and money,” he told me. “And the govern-ment has none of the former and heaps of the latter. When they lose enough money finding out they don’t know what they’re doing they’ll leave us alone and do some-thing else, somewhere else”.
“People in the south just don’t under-stand the sheer influence of nature up here. Look what it did to Comalco and their pastoral empire. They had more
money than God and wasted most of it just down the road trying to grow grass. Nature don’t vote so nature don’t care.”
I offered him another beer and men-tioned the alcohol restrictions. Dave raised the golden can and said “To our Caesar, Tiberius Nero. The further I am from Rome the further Caesar is from me.”
I’ll leave you with two valuable things I learnt on my great adventure. One, the further north you go the more practical, self reliant, capable and down to earth people are. Two, the term ‘isolated show-ers’, means the more isolated you are the more showers you get.
I also contracted PAD, a condition com-mon amongst travellers. PAD – or Post Ad-venture Depression – can only be treated with another adventure, so stay tuned. n
aNSWer TO IaN’S MySTery TracTOr QuIZIt is one of only a handful of Orenstein and Koppel S32 K tractors remaining in the world. It was manufactured in Berlin in the late 1940s and featured a thumping big V2 diesel engine. Restored by IMJ.
