This part of the 'Virtual Bus Tour' concentrates on business management & whole farm planning. 

This section will grow as we go out and interview more and more cane growers onfarm and add the content here.  This new website functionality will suit those with a high speed internet connection.




Precision Agriculture & Whole Farm Planning > The Granshaws, Burdekin cane growers
Bryan and Terry Granshaw look at their family property from a whole farm perspective.  They have trialled a number of practices on farm to find a system that works for them. After implementing controlled traffic, minimum till and GPS. The Granshaws were keen to work on targeting applications and reducing nitrogen use.  With the assistance of a Reef Rescue, they introduced a minimum till companion cropping planter that also doubled as a variable rate liquid and granular fertiliser applicator to their farm.  The project was designed to give the Granshaws the ability to continue their previous trials in companion cropping which they pioneered in 2001 with their home built planter. It was also designed to give them the ability to apply dunder subsurface.  And the whole operation is administered using a nifty little electronic system which helps them keep records and plan.
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Whole farm planning & water control through drainage management > Barry Mackay, Tully cane grower
The cane focus is on maximising productivity from existing land area with practices that meet or exceed highest industry standards of best practice. The Mackay family is committed to adapting management as new information and opportunities arise.  Their ability to farm sustainably and profitably will be greatly enhanced by Reef Rescue funded projects designed to improve drainage in the sensitive Cherrin Creek catchment and to progress implementation of zonal and zero tillage in a controlled traffi c farming system based dual rows 600 mm apart on 1.9 m row spacing.
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Cane, bananas part of sustainable family business > David Singh, Tablelands cane grower
Constant reminders of the symbiosis between agriculture and tourism in far north Queensland.  Here, on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, sugarcane and banana industries rub shoulders with tourist attractions, underscoring the important role that farming best practice has in ensuring the Reef’s continued good
health. Cane grower David Singh has trialled a myriad of new technologies on his Tablelands farm - the latest being a a purpose built Daybreak soybean planter to work in trashy conditions, made possible sooner with Reef Rescue funding.  The Singh family is using best practice, assisted by Reef Rescue funding, to boost cane production from 36,000 t to 50,000 t by 2011. Right: The 3-row mounder used as part of their best practice farming system.
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