Industry News
Soil health the key to reducing fertiliser rates
When it comes to soil, the O'Kane brothers like theirs as soft and crumbly as cottage cheese. It's a strictly gorgonzola-free zone at Chris and Michael O'Kane's sugar cane farm in Tully, where they are changing the soil's structure and its crop-growing potential. For four years, the brothers have...
NSW pair launch sugar cane plastic option
Sugar cane could be the answer to Australia's enormous plastic pollution problem, a pair of Sydney-based entrepreneurs say. About 70 billion pieces of soft "scrunchable" plastics are used in Australia each year, many of which are food packaging. Very little is recycled and much of it ends up in...
S8 E8 Sustainable cane farming on the Gold Coast
https://youtu.be/iGs1ccb9JKI Want to visit a sugarcane farm on Queensland’s Gold Coast? Greg Zipf supplies cane the Rocky Point sugar mill, mulch to home gardeners and also grows soya beans. Like most growers in the region, he’s committed to farming sustainably next to Moreton Bay. This video...
Regenerative Cane Farming Forum bus tour recap
https://youtu.be/qQVqH2P-C2Q In February 2021, Sugar Research Australia and Burdekin Productivity Services took a group of growers up to the Regenerative Cane Farming Forum in Cairns. The clip provides a short recap of the trip. Thanks to Burdekin Productivity Services and Queensland Department of...
Insecticide differences for fall armyworm
NEW research indicates there are variable levels of sensitivity to some insecticides between populations of fall armyworm (FAW) in different geographical areas of Australia. FAW is a highly migratory, invasive pest that was first reported in Australia in February 2020 and quickly established...
Australia now world’s second biggest sugar exporter
Australia has jumped into second place on the list of the world's biggest raw sugar exporters. Canegrowers chairman Paul Schembri said Australia had recently overtaken Thailand as the world's second largest exporter of raw sugar. "I think many people in our communities and government, and even...
Bundaberg farmers welcome recent rainfall but face grim growing season past July
BUNDABERG growers have welcomed recent rain across the Wide Bay region, after months of dry conditions. Recent rainfall has resulted in an increase of 30,000 megalitres to Paradise Dam since March 15, with more than 12,000ML of this water flowing into the dam last week, taking the overall capacity...
Racecourse Projects delivered 400,000 tonnes of cane to Mackay Sugar and Wilmar Sugar mills
The highly successful Mackay district farming operation Racecourse Projects had its foundations in October 2013 and continues to grow from strength to strength. Over time the company has invested in more than 5000 hectares of cane land in the Mackay/Plane Creek districts. Last year more than...
Decision to access disaster recovery assistance after the 2019 floods pays off for Davies family
A decision to access disaster recovery assistance after a monsoonal trough wreaked havoc across North Queensland in 2019 has helped one Burdekin farming family get back on its feet. Cane farms from Ingham to the Burdekin were inundated two years ago, as a monsoon trough brought an unprecedented...
Sugar millers focus on worker safety
Worker safety heads the agenda at the Australian Sugar Milling Council's biennial safety conference, starting in Mackay today. ASMC has set the theme for this year's conference as Living and Leading Safety - It Starts with You! The organisation represents 16 sugar mills in Queensland and NSW that...
Sweet achievement as Bundaberg company makes ‘world first’ cane harvester
A Bundaberg company says it has manufactured the world's first sugarcane harvester powered by a Stage 5 diesel engine and hopes to develop an export market for them in Japan. Canetec has been developing the machine for the past 12 months in response to requests from Japan for a small harvester...
Austoft sugarcane harvester picks up a sweet win in Brazil
The Austoft 8810 sugarcane harvester, whose heritage traces back to two brothers from Bundaberg in Queensland, has been named one of Brazil's Machines of the Year for 2020-21. The machine was named the winner in the sugarcane harvester category. "This award is testament to the quality, efficiency,...
Pest alert as FAW marches into cane
Cane growers and service providers are being urged to be on the lookout for signs of fall armyworm, following the first confirmed report of the pest in sugarcane. Identified in a crop on the Atherton Tablelands late last month, the occurrence is thought to be as a result of a heavily-infested...
NSW Sugar Board Appointment
Thirty-nine-year-old Richmond River cane grower Marty Walsh has been elected as a Director on the NSWSugar Milling Cooperative Board.Marty, his wife Donna and their three young children farm 110 hectares of cane land on their Corakiproperty. In partnership with his parents Tom and Julie, the Walsh...
State government commits $1.9 million to sugarcane transloading facility infrastructure
Maryborough sugarcane growers and the wider sugar industry have welcomed a $1.9 million funding commitment from the state government for transloading facility infrastructure. The commitment follows close on the heels of a $2.5 million pledge from the federal government to support the plan that...
Reef regulations must be fair for all
There's a common phrase, originating in the military, that suggests manure moves downhill. It gets across the idea that bad decisions made by those further up the chain of command often have the greatest impact on people below them, with little opportunity for recourse. This is a principle with...
iMapPESTS program to help protect sugar cane industry
Moth borers remain one of the highest priority pests for Australian sugar cane production. For this reason, Australian researchers have taken a proactive approach to clarifying control measures and gathering information about the pest. While not established in Australia, there are 36 major moth...
Farmers say fall armyworm, the ‘coronavirus of agriculture’, could force up food prices
There are fears food prices could rise as a pest caterpillar described as the "coronavirus of agriculture" continues its relentless march across the country. It has been a year since fall armyworm — not the species that eats lawns — was first detected at Bamaga at the tip of Far North Queensland....
Bundaberg farmers raise $1 Million for Paradise Dam class action
Wide Bay farmers and business owners have raised $1 Million to fund a class action against the Queensland Government and Sunwater. This comes two weeks since the class action over the remediation of Paradise Dam was ramped up, after revelations farmers in the Bundaberg region could be facing...
Sugarcane and the Creation of Carbon-Negative Hydrogen
Professor Damien Batstone speaks to AZoCleantech about his game-changing research on how sugarcane can be used as a clean energy source to produce hydrogen. What drove your research into sugarcane as a clean energy source to create hydrogen? We had previously researched the conversion of sugarcane...