5 minute read
Herbert River Region
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than the previous year’s nomination date in December.
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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.
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
n 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.
Winter 2019
It was great to see some sunshine after so
much rain and the mills were able to get going. It was even better to experience some cold weather putting some much-needed CCS into the cane.
Farmers were hard at work preparing their ground and getting planting underway. After the extreme weather there was a lot of catching up to do.
With soaring temperatures at the end of last year and then the excessive rain has taken its toll – in some areas the sugar content was well below average. Too many suckers in the cane!
October–November 2019
It has certainly been a year of extreme weather with the wettest December, January and February we have seen for some time – over 4.2 metres of rain fell in some areas. Paddocks were inundated, cane stools died out, putting a lot of strain on our farmers who haven’t been able to replant all that was lost.
Not many farmers were able to put in early plant and contractors were behind by a good month and a half before they were able to plant any cane at all. Planting was still being carried out at the end of September.
We are now having a dry spell and the cane crop is falling away under the dry conditions. The latest forecast has lowered the crop to around 4.1milliom tonnes. The sugar content was down when we first commenced crushing but has now risen and is averaging season to date 13.47 CCS.
There is no doubt about it, we either have a feast or a famine with no in between as we now need rain to help the plant cane along.
As our district is a monoculture area, I recently attended a meeting looking at an alternative crop for the district. The meeting was focused on industrial hemp. This would be a trial crop in Australia. There are many varieties of hemp, not just the smoking sort. Interesting times ahead.
We are now nearing the end of the 2019 season and it would be wonderful to see a price rise for sugar. It recently met someone who had worked in the industry over 10 years ago – he could not get over the fact that we were getting a price at that time around $30.00 a tonne and we are still getting the same price now! He found it incredible and wondered how we were managing. I think we wonder too.
Herbert River 4,718,178 82.7 14.24 Mills
Herbert production: 4,718,180 tonnes
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