Australia is a world-class sugar producer.  Over the past 20 years cane growing has changed dramatically - these days growing sugarcane is about the latest technology and practices. 

Cane growers are always looking at the latest technology to improve their farming practices to help reduce soil erosion and protect nearby waterways and the Great Barrier Reef. On this page, we meet some of the faces behind sugarcane growing in Australia.  

Mossman

Mossman third generation cane farmer Doug Rasmussen has been at the forefront of innovation in the industry for more than 40 years and remains dedicated to sustainable farming methods which maximise yield. Doug, together with his sons Justin and Rodney, farm 235 hectares of sugarcane between Port Douglas and Mossman and the nearby Cassowary Valley at the foothills of the Rex Range.

Doug has embarked on a five-year program to create sediment traps, shifting topsoil and laser-levelling each block when it becomes vacant so the rainfall travels slowly and evenly to the sediment trap. Doug has used the laser-leveller on all fallow blocks since 2007, and he pinpoints the location of the sediment traps so any topsoil washed away during the wet season is captured and can be applied to the areas which are situated lower.

One hundred percent trash blanketing was adopted by the Rasmussens in 1983, and zero till of all ratoons and minimal till for plant row soil began in 1991. By using filter mud on the marine-country ratoon blocks, Doug has reduced the amount of fertiliser by 25% as the sugarcane responds to the high lime content and other key nutrients in the filter mud.



Tableland

Tableland’s grower of the year award was awarded to a relative newcomer to the industry, Martin Cek. Wife Nicky (also the financial controller of the family business) and father to three children, Jackson (10), Hayley (8) and Harley (3), Mr Cek bought the 253 hectare property west of Mareeba from his mother in 2005. The farm was originally used for cattle grazing then rice cropping, but sugarcane has become the crop of choice on a property which depends on water from the Mareeba-Dimbulah irrigation system to make the land productive.

With an associate diploma in agronomy and a keen interest in sustainability, Mr Cek has adopted farming techniques that he first heard about when working as an employee at the Tableland Mill. At the centre of his farming philosophy is the concept of minimal till, nil cultivation and improving yield through fallowing paddocks. He has integrated a compaction minimisation strategy of wider rows and growing a legume fallow crop. His goal is to boost productivity, to ultimately achieve a crop of 20,000 tonnes.



Cairns

Cairns Region’s local prize was awarded to Ray Vicarioli. At his cane farm in the foothills of Mount Bartle Frere, he has learnt to make a sustainable living from the land, while dealing with Mother Nature’s propensity to dish out weather in lavish extremes.

The willingness to try new varieties and techniques sits at the heart of the philosophy for managing a property which has been in the Vicarioli family since 1976. Over the years, Ray, his wife Rosemary, son Ryan and daughter Lucy have also embraced Landcare initiatives and have taken an active involvement in riverbank restoration.

Employing a minimal tillage and nil-cultivation approach, Mr Vicarioli uses a variety of techniques to maximise productivity and sustainability, while minimising input costs. On the Vicarioli’s 116 hectare property, a range of techniques have been employed to deal with the one raw material for which there is often a drastic oversupply – water. Hilly paddocks have been contoured to reduce gradient and minimise water velocity. Sediment runoff has been limited by the application of silt traps. Sophisticated sub-surface drainage systems have also been constructed to minimise nutrient volatilisation.



Innisfail

Innisfail grower Jim Guglielmi scooped the local award in his area. Seventy-one year old Mr Guglielmi believes the key to knowing exactly what is going on in every part of his farm is the industry intelligence contained in the endless pages of numbers and meticulously kept records he has accumulated over his 55 years of farming.

The decades of record keeping provide the science for what Mr Guglielmi describes as “the new eight rules for successful cane farming”. Using the acronym, SERVANTS, he has detailed what is required, based upon personal experience, to maximise productivity and sustainability: Soil testing; Employ fallow; Rotation; Varieties; Attention to economics; No trash on stool; Take care of Environment; Time operations; Seed cane.

Mr Guglielmi’s eight rules for successful cane farming are the result of decades of observation on the 53 hectare flatland property, 36 hectares of which is under cane and the remainder under bananas. Describing the soil as a sometimes “peat-like” red clay loam, the greatest successes in farm productivity have come from periodically fallowing paddocks, which are planted with a leguminous soy bean crop that returns nitrogen to the soil and has other, less obvious benefits.



Tully

Tully grower Mario Raccanello scooped the hotly contested local award. Farming on floodplanes on the banks of the Tully River in the Riversdale area in Tully, Mario is keenly focused on reduction of run-off, and has set up a safety net of nutrient traps to all drains before the water discharges into inland lagoons. Mario has completed a number of plans including weed and nutrient management plans for his 330 hectare farm, on which he grows 30,000 tonnes of care with 50 hectares of fallow.

His cane is grown on 1.9 metre centres with 600 mm dual rows, with plans to widen this row spacing to accommodate future harvesting equipment. He has also implemented a GPS system on all the farm’s main machinery with 2 cm accuracy. Software is used on all operations to record all activities and inputs. Mario also uses a variable rate fertiliser bin to apply a prescriptive fertiliser blend. All spraying is done with a rate controller.

All of Mario’s lagoons are vegetated on perimeters and grass filters are maintained on exits before the water enters the Tully River. He says the pin-point accuracy and protection farmers exert on their farms result in beautiful, healthy farming systems, appreciated by an abundant number of crocodiles, birds and fish.



Ingham

Ingham grower Paul Marbelli has certainly improved productivity through best management practices, scoring him the local sugarcane grower of the year award, but that was not the motivation behind the third generation farmer’s business model. With a young son coming up behind him, and an innate desire to leave his four farms in as good or better condition than they were originally acquired, Paul recognises today’s farming necessitates a combination of skill and art using whatever means are available to him, including the Federal and Government’s Reef Rescue packages.

Paul has ticked all the reef rescue program’s accreditation boxes completing soil, nutrient, weed and pest management courses, as well as getting a commercial chemical operator’s licence that allows him to own and operate a high clearance spray tractor so he can control the direction and quantity of chemical used, which in turn not only benefits his profitability, but also the environment.

Well before the push by government to improve water quality of the reef and nearby wateways, Paul had adopted the sub-soil fertiliser application method so he wasn’t broadcasting the expensive commodity unnecessarily; instead, placing it underground for new plantings and under the trash blanket of ratoon crops.

A boilermaker by trade, Paul was able to indulge the advances of technology at a local engineering works he contracts to in the slack



Burdekin

Shaun Betteridge’s decision to swap his grease and oil rags for the earthly pursuit of sugarcane farming about 16 years ago has stirred more passion within the young agriculturalist than he ever could have imagined and the fire shows no signs of extinguishing.

At just 35 years of age, Shaun is an unusual sight in an industry with a relative age closer to double his years and he is not afraid to utilise that knowledge bank to improve his farming productivity and practices, which no doubt played a significant part in why he was named the Burdekin’s local Sugarcane Grower of the Year.

Confessing he was ``surprised’’ by the win given the expertise of the hundreds of farmers in the Burdekin, Shaun considers the award ``a good pat on the back’’ for someone who has defied the notion that you just can’t walk off the street and buy a cane farm and make a go of it.

Initially going into partnership with his two older brothers Glen and David to buy the 56 ha (140 acre) farm, Shaun stayed the distance and bought them out while working the farm on weekends and holidays when he wasn’t contract harvesting, or later mining in western Queensland, which he quickly shunned when he was able to buy his own harvest contract and farm full-time.

Situated about 10 km south of Home Hill, Shaun’s block has certainly presented some challenges with a patchwork of sand, clay and rich black soils that all pass through a ponding system to a lagoon where he runs about half a dozen head of cattle to reduce a fire hazard and hopefully one day, become good eating.

Shaun’s focus on his soils has not only boosted the earth and his profitability, but also his confidence as his yield and CCS increased



Proserpine

Proserpine growers, the Faletti family, say diversification, working together and machinery sharing underpin the success of the operation. Brothers Robert, 39, Marc, 36, and Maurice, 31, and their father John, 67, and their wives, own separate cane growing enterprises just north of Proserpine but farm as one unit to produce maximum tonnage from available land in an efficient, sustainable manner.

They share equipment to help minimise the costs of equipment purchase and repairs. This successful cooperation arrangement involves using Andrew’s GPS-guided billet planter and their 1997 model Toft harvester and a 10-tonne Carta bin. This saves them from having to buy extra machinery to each have a complete planting kit.

All cane is trash blanketed on rows mostly 1.6 m wide. They select the most suitable varieties for their mix of soils, which includes alluvial loams and some heavy black clays. Cane is kept young through rotation. Their 8 metre wide, high clearance spray unit based on a Fiat tractor does five rows at a time, covering up to 16 hectares (40 acres) in a day.

They save money by doing much of their own machinery repairs and fabrication. Robert and Marc are qualified mechanics and although Maurice does not have formal trade qualifications he has boiler-making experience and has done a TAFE course.



Mackay

Mackay winners of the CANEGROWERS sugarcane grower of the year competition, the Lay family, have set consistent high production of cane at least cost using efficient, sustainable farming methods as the clear goal of their farming operation.

The success of their best practice farming approach is clearly evident in the productivity results recorded year after year on their adjoining farms at Homebush in Mackay’s prime irrigated cane area. This winning style is not simply the result of good soil and ample water. Their crop management system is based on controlled traffic, GPS guidance, zonal tillage, break cropping with soybeans and efficient fertilising and weed control.

Everything they do is designed to save time, labour and fuel. Covering multiple rows in each pass is a far cry from the days of old. Now all cane is trash blanketed, most of the land is laser levelled and drains and headlands are carefully maintained.



Bundaberg

Bundaberg cane farming operation, Redtrail picked up the local grower of the year award, having a number of examples of best practice and efficiency projects for which the sugarcane industry is known, successfully integrated into their business. Richard Zunker believes their harvesting contract has been an important part of the family’s ability to remain viable and to grow. Richard is one of four directors of Redtrail Pty Ltd, a farming and contracting business in Bundaberg. Richard, his brother, Craig, and their parents, Joe and Coral, formed the company in 1991 as a harvest contracting business.

They have successfully implemented a rotational peanut crop of more recent times and other developments include changing the farm block layout and to add more water storage dams. They take chemical application seriously, getting agronomists recommendations and running small trials to check the effectiveness of different products and rates.

Redtrail looks at optimising the efficiency of their operations, both farming and contracting. The Zunkers use company meetings as an opportunity to talk about new ideas they have come across.



Isis

Isis cane grower John Kingston has always been quick to get involved with new ideas and making them work. The zonal rotary hoe in his shed is a prime example where John has taken up the idea of only cultivating the planting zone for cane and soybeans and then helping to develop a three-row rotary that is now sold throughout the industry.

GPS is fully implemented on the Kingston’s farms and John is moving toward using the technology to feed data into their business’s record-keeping. One of John’s sons has recently returned to work on the farm and together they are trialling the FarmWorks system to track inputs.

John is also looking into using the handheld GPS to mark things like areas of weed outbreaks, soil testing sites, underground drains and the like. Their harvest contractor also has GPS in the cab so there is potential to add harvesting data too at a later stage.



Maryborough

Maryborough grower Ashley Petersen believes that for the Australian sugarcane to stay competitive we have to concentrate on low-cost production. Ashley farms with his father, Lloyd, three brothers David, Kelvin and Elton and two members of the fifth generation of the family to farm in the area, Leyton and Nathan. They also employ four permanent workmen.

The Petersens have completely implemented a controlled traffic system across their 450 ha of cropping land in the Maryborough – Hervey Bay district. Ashley has complete confidence in the dual-row raised beds they use to grow three crops — cane, pineapples and soybeans — in rotation. He uses raised beds to drain water away, preventing waterlogging, but just as importantly, moisture is conserved in the uncompacted beds in dry weather.

He says the whole farming system has returned significant benefits to our business, including improved net profits. They have seen a 30% reduction in tractor hours on one farm alone as say this type of reduction makes a huge difference to efficiency - not only the less distance travelled per hectare coupled with the higher pour rate means more tonnes in the bin per hour.



Rocky Point

Rocky Point fourth-generation cane grower Tony Huth treads a fine line between prudent investment in farming operations that maximise productivity, efficiency, sustainability and over-capitalisation of a cane enterprise.

His father Ron, 88, still helps with farming chores as does Tony’s son Justin, 17, who will be the fifth generation cane grower if he achieves his fervent desire to secure a career in the industry. Tony, 55, persuaded Justin to begin a trade course this year as a diesel fitter to underpin his farming aspirations.

Tony Huth has carefully tailored his crop management and machinery utilisation on land at Norwell and Jacob’s Well to optimise yields, limit costs and minimise labour requirements. Tony achieves better than average yields on some of the poorest country in the mill area, including low-lying acid sulphate prone soils and salty sandy areas.



NSW

Tweed Valley grower Robert Quirk has run a 200 ha cane farm at Duranbah in northern New South Wales for nearly 50 years. He is well known not only for trialing and implementing innovative farm practices, but also for his contributions to improving land and water management through on-farm action, scientific research and community involvement.

Robert has made real inroads into cane growing on acid sulfate soils, and is always on the hunt for innovative solutions in finding better ways to sustain the soil and increase crop production and reduce chemical use and the harmful effects of effluent.

His approach to farming the Tweed Valley’s acid sulfate-rich volcanic and tidal soils,  enabled him to reduce chemical use by 25 percent, decrease heavy metal and acidity discharge by 80 percent, and increase productivity by 38 per cent.  Many of the practices Robert has developed on farm are now considered world’s best practice for farming acid sulfate soils. Not surprisingly, the Quirk family farm at Duranbah has become a popular stop-over for politicians, growers, engineers, tourists and students.

Robert also sits on a variety of representative boards and committees for the sugarcane industry.  He is also taking part in the Climate Champion program.