News Briefs
Harvest hasn't slowed Smartcane BMP accreditations Smartcane BMP accreditations continue to gather pace with the industry-led program climbing swiftly past the 500 accredited enterprise milestone achieved in March. As of 1 September, 585 cane farming businesses, accounting for 33% of Queensland's total canegrowing area, had achieved accreditation, with a further five currently awaiting the final audit process. "In total, 80% of the Queensland cane industry is engaged in our program, including accredited and benchmarked growers," Smartcane BMP Manager Kate Gowdie said. "This is usually a quiet time of the year, with growers busy getting their cane off and preparing for next year's crop, so it's pleasing to see accreditations continuing to tick over. We expect the pace to really pick up once the harvest comes to an end and growers have more time to prepare for audit."
Pictured: Smartcane BMP accredited Mossman growers John and Richard Padovan.
There was more good news for the program recently, with Wilmar announcing the extension of its Smartcane BMP incentive payment scheme for Burdekin growers. Growers who are already registered with the program will now have until July 2021 to achieve their accreditation. Under the scheme, Wilmar will provide newly accredited growers a one-off incentive payment of 15c per tonne of cane, capped at 25,000 tonnes. To be eligible, growers must achieve accreditation in the three core modules and provide Wilmar with a copy of their accreditation certificate.
Crush closes in on halfway mark Queensland’s 2020 crush is fast approaching the midway point with some districts reporting over 50% of cane harvested by the end of August. As at 29 August, Bundaberg and Tableland growers had cut 54% and 50% of the 2020 crop respectively, while Mossman growers were sitting at 49%. In total 12.5 million tonnes of Queensland's estimated 29.3 million tonne crop had been crushed. Wet weather through June and July hampered harvesting operations in a number of districts. But it wasn’t just the rain causing headaches for harvesters.
Strong support for Reef Regs petition A CANEGROWERS Bundaberg e-petition calling on the Queensland Government to revoke the latest round of reef regulations had garnered well over 3,000 signatures by the time this edition of Australian Canegrower went to print. With just two days remaining before the petition closed on 4 September, 3,303 people had visited the Queensland Parliament's website to lend the petition their support. A second CANEGROWERS Bundaberg petition, which unlike the Queensland Parliament version allowed supporters outside Queensland to sign, had received almost 2,000 signatures by 2 September. “This is not a whisper from the voting public – it is a roar, and the Queensland Government had better be listening as we head for the October 31 State Election.” CANEGROWERS Bundaberg Manager, Dale Holliss said.
In Herbert River, crushing at Wilmar’s Victoria Mill came to a grinding halt on 25 August when a Brolga crashed into a power transformer, cutting electricity to the mill for half a day. With a wingspan of up to 2.5 metres, the Brolga is Australia’s largest flying bird.
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