Sugarcane growers in the Burdekin have a novel new variety to consider for their future farming operations.
The Burdekin Regional Variety Committee (RVC) met earlier this year to consider the commercial merit of the most advanced experimental clones in the Sugar Research Australia (SRA) breeding program and approved the release of SRA32.
Mr Rob Milla, Chair of the RVC and Manager of Burdekin Productivity Services (BPS), explained that the committee includes technical expertise across local production, agronomy, pathology, plant breeding and milling.
“The RVC is recognised under the Queensland Biosecurity Act with responsibility for minimum disease standards and is tasked with making release decisions on new varieties that improve whole-of-industry profitability,” said Mr Milla.
Dr Xianming Wei is SRA’s Variety Development Manager responsible for Burdekin plant breeding, which is expanding this year with 33,000 potential new varieties going into field trials at the SRA Brandon research station.
These potential new varieties then progress to Final Assessment Trials (FATs) conducted under commercial agronomic management conditions on farms across the Burdekin. A range of specialist tests are also completed to determine the disease resistance profile, sugar quality, and fibre quality of advanced clones.
SRA32 has completed testing through to second ratoon in seven Burdekin FATs between 2015 to 2020.
SRA32 has shown exceptional productivity with an advantage of 16 TCH when compared to standard, established varieties in these trials.
“SRA32 has also been very consistent, with cane yield above the average of the standards in 19 of the 20 harvests and 13 of these were statistically significant,” Dr Wei said.
“The new variety does have lower CCS than established varieties, averaging 0.8 units below the standards.
“However, the high yield potential of SRA32 means that the variety offers an advantage in terms of sugar per hectare. The difference in CCS varies with harvest date and crop age so there are opportunities to maximise CCS from SRA32 through management practices.”
SRA Executive Manager for Variety Development, Dr Jason Eglinton, said SRA32 is resistant to leaf scald, mosaic and Pachymetra.
“SRA32 is rated intermediate in reaction to smut, and in Burdekin observation trials infection levels have been higher than Q208 and KQ228 but significantly lower than SRA8. Planting into high smut risk situations should be avoided,” Dr Eglinton said.
Clean seed is a foundation for productivity, but it does take time to generate high volumes for new varieties, explained Rob Milla
“Following standard protocols for propagation through mother plots to distribution plots would see SRA32 become available to growers for billet planting in the 2024 season. However, thanks to SRA and BPS working together to use tissue culture to rapidly produce enough SRA32 plantlets to establish a one-hectare mother plot this year, growers will have clean seed of SRA32 available in 2023, one year ahead of the normal schedule,” Mr Milla said.
Growers interested in managing their own on-farm propagations can order tissue culture plants for delivery for spring planting in 2022, with orders to BPS closing at the end of October.
Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL) has finalised its 2020-Season pricing results, with the industry-owned sugar marketer notching up a record weighted average Shared Pool result of +$31 per tonne.
The Shared Pool captures QSL’s operating costs, premiums, other revenue, and the Loyalty Bonus where applicable, and is applied to every tonne marketed through QSL.
QSL General Manager Marketing Mark Hampson, pictured right, said the 2020 Shared Pool return for tonnage priced on the global ICE 11 raw sugar market was a new high for the marketer, which has been marketing sugar on behalf of Queensland cane growers and sugar millers for nearly a century.
Mr Hampson said the strong result reflected the high physical sales premiums available for Australian raw sugar last year, following a significant drop in production out of Thailand, one of our nation’s largest sugar competitors.
“The failure of the Thai crop due to drought in early 2020 and its subsequent slow recovery saw very strong demand for sugar last year in Asia, our primary market,” Mr Hampson said.
“As we’re a not-for-profit, pass-through organization, those higher net marketing returns were passed back to growers through the Shared Pool. That, and a long-awaited improvement in the ICE 11 sugar price saw QSL pools and grower-pricing results increase year-on-year.”
The February 2020 Guaranteed Floor Pool emerged as QSL’s best-performing ICE 11 pool for the season, returning $493/t IPS net, while the US Quota Pool, priced on the ICE 16 and automatically allocated to all QSL growers, returned $702/t IPS net (click here for QSL’s full 2020 pool results).
The highest grower-managed pricing achieved for the 2020 Season was $497/t gross actual in the Target Price Contract, with $456/t gross actual the weighted average price achieved for the season in this popular pricing option.
Mr Hampson said that while physical sales premiums had tempered for the 2021 Season, strong ICE 11 prices were still translating into attractive returns for Queensland sugar producers.
“QSL has seen record levels of grower-managed pricing in the past six months as our growers sought to lock in 2021-Season prices above the key $500/t level,” he said.
“The 2021-Season Target Price Contract passing $550/t this week, while QSL-managed pools are also off to strong start, with the 2021 Harvest Pool currently returning a weighted average of $516/t IPS net and the Actively Managed Pool not far behind it on $513/t IPS net.” (Click here for current market levels)
While Thailand is continuing to rebuild its crop, all eyes are now on the world’s largest sugar producer, Brazil, which has had a dry start to their season, prompting crop revisions and hopes of a continuing deficit market and associated strong sugar prices.
“With a decent Queensland crop in the paddock and attractive sugar prices, it’s shaping up to be a good season after a couple of tough years,” Mr Hampson said.
For more information contact Cathy Kelly on 0409 285 074
Sunshine Sugar congratulates Nutrition Innovation on being officially recognised as one of the best SMEs in the world by the United Nations, as part of the Food Systems Summit 2021.
The summit was created to raise awareness of the critical role that agriculture and food systems play in achieving a sustainable future.
“We teamed up with Nutrition Innovation in 2018, with the partnership delivering a world-first Low GI sugar – Sunshine Sugar Low GI; said Sunshine Sugar CEO, Mr Chris Connors. “This partnership delivered one of the first of our diversification projects that are a key part of the strategic business plan underpinning the future sustainability of the NSW sugar industry.”
This low GI sugar is made using the nucane® process, developed by Nutrition Innovation and made at the Condong sugar mill. The process produces a wholesome sugar that retains naturally occurring and beneficial antioxidants.
Being low in GI (Glycaemic Index) means that it is more slowly digested, absorbed and metabolised – resulting in lower and slower rise in blood glucose.
Selected from nearly 2,000 applications from 135 countries, Nutrition Innovation is amongst a group of winners who showcase inspiring, diverse, and impactful solutions in improving access to healthy, sustainable food.
“It’s a testimony to not only our innovations, but all of our partners around the world” said Founder and Chairman of Nutrition Innovation, Dr David Kannar. “Our objectives have always been to create innovations, like nucane™, to solve global health and nutrition challenges.
The United Nations Food Systems Summit hopes to bring together the science, finance and political commitment to transform global food systems. The goal is to introduce systems that are productive, environmentally sustainable, include the poor and promote healthy diets.
The Great Barrier Reef is experiencing a rare window of recovery due to a break in weather and bleaching events according to the latest observations from marine scientists.
According to the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s Annual Summary Report on Coral Reef Condition, which was released today, conditions have been relatively good for coral recovery during 2020-21.
Researchers surveyed 127 reefs and found that at least 69 had seen an increase in hard coral cover since they were last surveyed.
“This indicates that recovery is well underway, after a particularly intense decade of disturbances prior to this,” monitoring team leader Mike Emslie said.
“We’ve had very few acute disturbances this year,” Dr Emslie said.
“There were no sustained heatwaves leading to coral bleaching, there were no large tropical cyclones.
“Essentially the Great Barrier Reef has had a bit of a breather.”
AIMS researchers are towed over the Great Barrier Reef to conduct surveys.(Supplied: Australian Institute of Marine Science)
Dr Emslie said the majority of the coral cover growth was driven by common, fast-growing table and branching corals.
However, he said these corals were the most vulnerable.
“Their fast growth comes at a bit of a cost, their skeletons aren’t as dense as other corals,” Dr Emslie said.
AIMS has warned that the recovery the Great Barrier Reef is currently experiencing is likely to be short-lived with the “increasing prominence” of climate-related disturbances.
“The biggest risk to the reef going forward is climate change,” AIMS chief executive Paul Hardisty said.
“We must reduce emissions if the Great Barrier Reef and frankly other reefs around the world are going to continue to exist in the state in which we recognise them today,” Dr Hardisty said.
Dr Paul Hardisty delivered an update on the reef’s condition in Townsville. (ABC North Qld: Chloe Chomicki)
The World Heritage Committee, which sits under UNESCO, made a draft recommendation to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” in June.
The decision is expected to be finalised at a meeting in China in the coming days.
AIMS declined to comment on the World Heritage Committee recommendation.
However, research program leader Britta Schaffelke said the latest observations of the Great Barrier Reef did not change a grim outlook which was delivered by the institute in 2019.
“The outlook report assessed the future outlook for the reef to be very poor,” Dr Schaffelke said.
“The reef outlook into the future is still very poor because of the dangers of climate change and other factors.”
‘Incredibly rare moment’
The World Wildlife Fund’s Richard Leck said the report told a story of hope and one of a warning.
“It’s great to see the reef still has resilience and we have seen some significant bounce back in coral species,” he said.
“But this is an incredibly rare moment in time where we haven’t had extreme heat events or crown of thorns outbreaks.
“Those events are more likely to continue into the future.”
Mr Leck said the report strengthened arguments to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger”.
“This report reinforces the importance of the decision faced by the World Heritage Committee this week,” he said.
Wilmar Sugar is set to commemorate 100 years of operation at its Invicta Mill, with a full day of celebrations scheduled in August.
The Invicta Mill, near the town of Giru, will be marking this milestone on August 19 with a barbeque breakfast for employees, followed by a community night at Giru’s Brolga Park featuring a licensed bar, live entertainment, pop up food trucks and amusements for the kids.
Production superintendent at the Invicta Mill, James Wallace said an official ceremony would also be held at the entrance to the mill site from 10am, with a morning tea provided at which time the retired 12-tonne Invicta locomotive would be dedicated and left on permanent display outside the mill.
Mr Wallace said the mill had a special relationship with the town of Giru and it was hoped all of the community would come out to help celebrate the Centenary.
“The relationship between the mill and the town is symbiotic,” he said.
“The mill is vital to the ongoing life of the town, and the town supplies the mill with goods, services and, most importantly, people.
“About a third of our workforce lives in the broader Giru area. Many of those employees have had multiple generations of their family work at the mill.”
Wilmar programs system specialist and Giru local Paula Scarabel shares a longstanding history with the mill, one that dates back to its establishment in the area.
“My paternal great great grandfather was one of the original cane growers who supplied the mill. My maternal grandfather owned a truck and delivered wood to the mill for the boilers from 1944,” she said.
Ms Scarabel has dedicated her time to researching the mills history for a historical exhibition, having spent the last few months immersed in old photos, records and memorabilia. The exhibition will be on display at the Giru QCWA Hall during the Centenary celebrations.
“It’s been wonderful to go through all of the old records, some of which date back to before the mill was established,” she said.
Paula Scarabel with Invicta Mill historical records
Prior to finding its permanent home at Giru in 1921, the mill was operated in two different locations.
It originally resided on the Richmond River in New South Wales where it commenced crushing operations in the 1880s, before being dismantled and moved again to South Kolan near Bundaberg in 1906. https://0d221e9a94df6fa15dbc71e73cb1c0da.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
Ms Scarabel said the entire logistical exercise was overseen by F.E. Barbat and Sons, from Ipswich.
“We actually have the original, handwritten letter from F.E. Barbat and Sons confirming the details of the purchase and relocation of the mill,” Mrs Scarabel said.
The letter will be on display among many other photos and memorabilia in the historical exhibition over the course of the celebration.
