Best practice farming system
Best practice farming system aims to boost Burdekin productivity
Australian Canegrower Magazine (5 September 2005)
Seven enterprising cane growers are preparing to take the next step in an ambitious grassroots reform program, which could see their cooperative farming group become the model for successful cane growing in the Burdekin district.
HCL Harvesting Pty Ltd (HCL) has just been awarded a $50 000 grant from the Queensland Government’s Sugar Industry Innovation Fund (SIIF) to help extend its activities beyond cooperative cane planting and harvesting towards becoming a farming practice cooperative, which is committed to adoption of a ‘whole of group’ integrated farming system. This system will utilise best practice, precision farming and other cutting edge technologies to ensure economic and environmental sustainability.
HCL, as a pacesetter for adoption of best practice farming systems in the Burdekin, seems destined to become a powerful agent of change in a district that has tended to cling to traditional methods of farming because of heavier cane crops and almost universal furrow irrigation. Controlled traffic, minimum tillage, precision farming, green manure fallowing and green cane trash blanketing are becoming commonplace practices throughout the industry but HCL is the first farmer group in the Burdekin to try to package them into a single farming system tailored for district conditions.
Once HCL has successfully implemented the new system across its seven existing members, it will seek to expand its customer base through contracting and transfer of the technology to other groups by demonstration and active consultation with other groups and farmers.
Four growers at Brandon formed HCL in 1994 as a cooperative harvesting group, seeking cost savings, more efficient use of capital and greater quality control. It now carries out dual row billet planting, harvesting and haulage on seven farms producing 124 000 tonnes of cane from approx 1250 hectares.
Driving forces behind the group are Ian Haigh,and Charlie Cacciola. Ian has been growing cane since 1964. He was a member of canegrowers Pioneer Area Committee for 24 years until 2003, including 14 years as chairman. He was a member of several SRDC working parties and in 2003 received the Sugar Industry Research and Development Services Award. The Cacciola family have been growing cane in the Burdekin since the 1930s and Charlie is actively involved in innovative farming ideas through the Burdekin Innovators Group and was a participant in the SRDC CSR Industry Capacity Building project.
“Our aim is to restructure the cooperative into a full business cooperative which is able to maximise productivity and sustainability and reduce costs across all member farms,” he said. “In the longer term we want to foster reform and change in the district by demonstrating the values and benefits of our cooperative model.”
This approach will be based on the use of GPS precision guidance in a minimum tillage, controlled traffic system.
HCL has a history of testing new farming practices based on best practice. In 2003 it received $82 000 under the Burdekin Rangelands to Reef Initiative administered by the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries. This project, involves nutrient testing and trial planting at three sites, installation of monitoring equipment for water runoff and soil moisture tensiometers, recording and data analysis e.g. irrigation water runoff, and implementation of a nutrient management plan.
The project has purchased a Hodge Moller dual row double disc opener planter modified for Burdekin irrigated conditions to demonstrate and prove the farming systems approach. The addition of crop dividers and floating shoes to a new harvester will allow cutting of both standard 1.52 m row spacings and the new 1.83 m row spacings planted in 2003. These modifications will enhance the ability to harvest cane green. The group has adapted a trash furrow roller/splitting implement for green cane trash cultivation and manufactured a bed-forming implement.
In its application for SIIF funding, HCL acknowledged that ultimately all industry stakeholders will need to stand on their own and aim for world’s best practice. The Australian industry must improve its productivity and reduce its costs if it is to compete with its main competitor - Brazil.
HCL’s proposed low-cost precision farming system embraces a range of practices designed to reduce growers’ costs and improve productivity.
Controlled traffic: This entails matching row spacing to 1.83 m wheel spacing of harvesting and haulout machinery. Trials conducted by the Sugar Yield Decline Joint Venture over the past 10 years demonstrate considerable productivity gains plus savings in growing costs when wider rows are used in a precision farming system.
Reduction of inter-row compaction helps improve irrigation application efficiencies on high infiltration soil types. Moving soil compaction away from the immediate root zone to a concentrated area in the middle of the inter-row provides a highly compacted zone for water movement down the row whilst also allowing lateral soakage of water into the uncompacted cane row. Other benefits include improved soil biota, less crop damage during planting and harvesting, higher yields through more precise placement of inputs, savings on fuel, chemicals and machinery wear and tear, better utilisation of capital, and reduced operator driving error.
A benchmarking exercise conducted in 2004 showed that two farms in the HCL group that had used minimum till techniques for up to 10 years had greatly lowered their costs of production – up to 25% in one case.
Permanent uniform beds: Permanent beds improve harvester efficiency by allowing the operator to concentrate on other operations/efficiencies instead of constantly focusing on altering basecutter height due to inconsistent row profiles. Improved operator efficiencies also lower the amount of dirt and extraneous matter in the cane supply, thus improving milling efficiency, sugar quality and returns to both miller and grower.
Weed control: Precision farming allows the use of non-selective herbicides on difficult-to-control weeds during the first weeks of the fallow period.
Rotational cropping with legumes: Rotation of sugarcane with legume crops can improve soil health and fertility. A break in the cane monoculture allows beneficial soil organisms to multiply and helps reduce the number of pathogens causing losses to the existing farming system. As well as being a potential cash crop, legumes help provide a valuable source of organic carbon which contributes to soil health, structure and maintenance of beneficial organisms.
Trash blanketing: This practice conserves soil moisture, minimises soil erosion, reduces weeds and adds organic carbon to the soil in addition to reducing public nuisance from smoke and ‘black snow’.
Dual row planting: Dual row double disc opener cane planting at 0.5m spacing on the 1.83m row encourages rapid crop canopy closure to maximise crop radiation interception and reduce weed growth. Dual rows increase the establishment of a healthy shoot count during early stages of crop growth, helping to maximise potential crop yield.
Timeliness of operations: Precision farming allows fallowing, planting, spraying, fertilising and harvesting operations to be carried out sooner after a rainfall event compared to the conventional system where there are often lengthy delays.
