SECTION 2
AREA ROUNDUP Th is se c t i o n brou g ht t o y o u i n as soci a t i o n wi t h
than the previous year’s nomination date in December. If a grower does not select a marketer of their choice, they automatically default into MSF Sugar marketing. Was this a ploy to catch some growers off-guard during the busy harvesting season? At the start of the year, QSL released a package called QSL Direct. After several meetings between grower representatives, MSF Sugar and QSL, MSF Sugar denied their growers access to QSL Direct, claiming it was a disadvantage to their growers. This created an imbalance among growers in different areas of the industry when other mill areas have access to QSL Direct and the included products. In a mediocre attempt to remedy the imbalance, MSF Sugar will be offering in 2020 the ability for growers to manage 100 per cent of their GEI Sugar through self-managing the individual “Late Season Pool”, which is the same as the QSL Harvest Pool. MSF Sugar will be negotiating with QSL to allow growers to manage 100 per cent of their GEI Sugar allocation using QSL Harvest Pool. This only allows growers the use of one single product from the QSL Direct package.
The weather has now cleared, the CCS content is rising, and with a finish date towards the end of November in sight, next year promises an improved crop.
NORTHERN REGION 2018 HARVEST SUMMARY Mill area Tonnes Tonnes per Average hectare CCS Tableland 402,033 97.2 14.43 Mossman 1,110,058 91.0 13.82 Mulgrave 976,449 82.3 14.49 South Johnstone 1,602,948 72.2 13.62 Tully 2,575,142 86.7 14.45 Northern Region production: 6,666,630 tonnes
Herbert River Region O By Carol Mackee Herbert Director Summer 2018–19 October and November were extremely dry with temperatures over 40 and at times reaching 45 degrees. Needless to say, we were feeling the heat going into summer – as was everything else. The leaves were burning on the trees and the cane was under stress, then along came the rain and it kept right on a coming. The eastern side of the Ingham District copped a massive fall in December of 1.2 metres overnight. January falls were 980 mm and again in February 1 metre of rain. Cane paddocks were inundated and some crops were lost. If the western side had copped the same amount of rainfall that was along the coast, the damage would have been horrendous. The water was backed up behind the mangroves because the trash formed a wall and the water was not able to get away. We all felt for those farmers who had substantial losses – with the low world prices this was a double whammy.
Autumn 2019 Rain was still falling in the Herbert Region. Although it was generally only nuisance rain it was enough to stop farmers from planting. Crushing was delayed and it was turning out to be an extremely trying time for both millers and farmers. The ground was saturated to the point where, even when simply walking on it, water was seeping out – the soil was just mud. Wilmar had a trying time when it came to fixing washouts and line repairs following the extreme weather events. They did well to get the crush underway. Flood damage.
18 — AUSTRALIAN SUGARCANE ANNUAL 2019
Winter 2019 It was great to see some sunshine after so
