17 minute read
ON THE LAND
Queensland Grains:
Looking to the north and celebrating our vibrant industry
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AgForce Grains President Brendan Taylor
It isn’t all about shaking hands and kicking tyres and soil (as fun as those activities might be!).
We want to speak to the people who call these places home so that we can learn, first-hand, what it is they believe is holding our businesses, our communities, and our State back.
Then, armed with their wisdom, we can hopefully convince others to help us take the necessary next steps to break through this seemingly insurmountable final frontier.
Before we embark on this important trip, however, there’s the significant matter of letting our hair down and celebrating all things grain at AgForce’s Grains Gala Dinner.
This night of nights, in Dalby on 23 July, brings together producers and industry stakeholders from throughout Queensland.
With a Middle Eastern inspired dinner, premium, locally grown produce, and three lucky door prizes that include overnight accommodation for two and free breakfast, you can’t afford to miss out!
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Find out more and book your tickets while they’re still available at agforce-grainsgala.eventbrite.com.au
Reef restoration project reaches halfway point
Rheardan Cobbo, Waylon Sam, Sam Savage, Gary Kyle , Darryl Chong
David Wosner NQ DRY TROPICS
AS Australia celebrates NAIDOC Week, a 12-month project supporting Indigenous jobs and training is already delivering multiple benefits.
Late last year, NQ Dry Tropics partnered with Indigenous employment group Three Big Rivers on the Healing Country initiative, funded through the Queensland Government’s $10 million Reef Assist program.
Under the project, members of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Team are gaining practical on-ground skills working on NQ Dry Tropics projects across North Queensland, while undertaking an accredited environmental training program.
Darryl Chong (Waanyi) is supervising the young team, made up of Rheardan Cobbo (Bindal), Gary Kyle (Bwgcolman/Juru), Waylon Sam (Bwgcolman), and Sam Savage (Bindal).
So far, the crew has carried out a wide range of activities such as controlling invasive weeds, fixing eroded gullies to reduce sediment runoff from grazing properties, constructing fences on a grazing property to protect fragile land, and improving the condition of coastal ecosystems, including creeks and wetlands.
To complement the field work, the group is undertaking a Certificate III in Rural Operations, and accredited training in first aid/CPR, ACDC (weeds chemicals) and operating chainsaws.
Additional training has been provided by NQ Dry Tropics staff in areas such as gully remediation, weed identification and control, and grass species identification.
Achievements to date include: • 28.3 hectares of coastal communities cleared of marine debris, collecting a total of 3.9 cubic metres plus heavy waste; • 50.5 hectares of weed control contributing to riparian and wetland restoration, erosion mitigation and protection of
Beach Scrub communities; • 43 erosion control structures built (leaky weirs and stick dams) • 150 stems planted to revegetate an area of 3800 square metres • 2.18 kilometres of fencing constructed on a grazing property to assist proper grazing management practices.
Crew member Gary Kyle 21, from Townsville, said that being involved with the project had provided major benefits.
“I want to give back to my land, learn about my land, and contribute to my land.
“I feel much more connected to my country since starting this work. I have learned so much, and with all of the practical skills and training courses, my resume is going to look jam packed.
“This has been my first regular job and it has boosted my confidence. I really enjoy being part of the team. We enjoy each other’s company and there is a nice vibe between us. I would describe it as a brotherhood. To work with the crew I work with now, and to be out on the land is very rewarding.”
NQ Dry Tropics Project Manager Caralea Hensler said the work undertaken by the team was supporting a variety of existing projects to deliver better on-ground results.
“The team’s contribution is boosting activities to improve land condition, protect plants and animals, and improve the quality of water flowing into local creeks and the reef,” Ms Hensler said.
Three Big Rivers Director Thomas Holden said the project was a great example of what well- targeted investment could achieve.
“The Queensland Government’s Reef Assist program is supporting beneficial Indigenous economic and employment outcomes,” Mr Holden said.
“The Three Big Rivers employees have been able to invest in themselves individually, and gain great cultural experiences while working on country and improving the environment.”
Out of the 135 jobs generated through the Reef Assist program, around seventy are providing employment and training opportunities for First Nations people.
Controlling woody weeds at Crooked Waterhole, Giru: Gary Kyle, Rheardan Cobbo, NQ Dry Tropics Project Officer Shakira Todd, Sam Savage
Cane growers produce more with less water, less energy, less ecological impact
Wilmar Sugar crushing update
Cane grower Don Salter never have imagined the daily grind of irrigating could be controlled through a battered old phone Less water pumped through the network means less strain on the main pumps
NQ Dry Tropics
BURDEKIN cane farmers involved in a project targeting innovative farming practices have succeeded in making spectacular savings in the amount of water and power needed to grow their crops.
Growers now have more opportunities to make similar gains through a new suite of projects on offer through extension support agencies in the Burdekin.
NQ Dry Tropics will oversee the $20.4 million four-year Lower Burdekin Regional Water Quality Program, with projects delivered by Sugar Research Australia (SRA), Farmacist, Greening Australia and Green Collar.
It will provide support to deliver irrigation, nutrient, and pesticide management improvements as well as wetland treatment systems.
The new program will
build and expand on previous water quality efforts, providing even greater benefits for growers and reef water quality. The Lower Burdekin Regional Water Quality Program is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. The Burdekin Cane Innovations project that wound up in December, 2019 helped to lay the foundations for the GBRF’s new investment. NQ Dry Tropics commissioned Steve Attard from AgriTech Solutions to closely examine the results from a representative group of farms that participated in the project. Although there were considerable lifestyle and future benefits for growers, Mr Attard concentrated on Weekly production figureshard data calculating the
Burdekin region mills Week 4, ending 03 July 2021
Weekly production figuresCane crushed This week Season to date Invicta 158,269 535,726Burdekin region mills Week 4, ending 03 July 2021 Cane crushed This week Season to date Invicta 158,269 535,726 Pioneer 84,519 275,067 Pioneer 84,519 275,067 Kalamia 83,734 261,597 Inkerman 77,946 207,633 Burdekin 404,468 1,280,023 Kalamia CCS 83,734 261,597 Inkerman Burdekin Invicta Pioneer 77,946 404,468 13.85 13.99 207,633 1,280,023 13.45 13.56
Kalamia CCS Invicta Inkerman Burdekin Pioneer 13.49 13.16 13.85 13.99 13.35 13.71 13.45 13.56 12.96 13.34
Kalamia 13.49 Weekly variety performance for region 13.16 Inkerman Variety % CCS 13.35Variety % 12.96 CCS Burdekin Q240 41 14.01 13.71 Q232 5 13.3413.04
KQ228 38 13.51 Q208 4 13.53 Weekly variety performance for region Q183 9 13.98
Variety % CCS Variety % CCS Q240 Comments: 41 14.01 Q232 5 13.04
KQ228 38 13.51 Q208 4 13.53 Q183 9 13.98Throughput for the Burdekin mills in week four was good with just over 400,000 tonnes of cane put through the Comments: rollers. Ground conditions are improving with the fine dry weather Forecast showers did not eventuate which was a relief as harvesters continue to look for suitably dry paddocks in the Inkerman area. Average weekly CCS was 13.71. This was above budget. The highest CCS sample was 16.5 from a rake of Q240 first ratoon cane in the Invicta Mill area. As we start the second week of the school holidays, we ask parents and carers to continue to remind children of the dangers of playing around cane railways.
Throughput for the Burdekin mills in week four was good with just over 400,000 tonnes of cane put through the rollers. Ground conditions are improving with the fine dry weather Forecast showers did not eventuate which was a relief as harvesters continue to look for suitably dry paddocks in the Inkerman area. Average weekly CCS was 13.71. This was above budget. The highest CCS sample was 16.5 from a rake of Q240 first ratoon cane in the Invicta Mill area. As we start the second week of the school holidays, we ask parents and carers to continue to remind children of the dangers of playing around cane railways.
John Tait Cane Supply Manager Burdekin Region
economic benefits to each farm and immediate water and energy savings.
He examined the results for four properties that installed automated furrow irrigation across 530ha.
Collectively, they gained significant economic benefit by achieving annual savings of more than 1600ML of water and 80,000kWh of electricity, he said in his report.
The environment also benefited with a reduction of about 1700kg of Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen (DIN) leaving the farms, and potentially flowing out to the Great Barrier Reef.
The irrigation improvements also resulted in reduced pesticide and sediment leaving farms and an estimated 65 tonne reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Well-designed automated furrow irrigation systems could significantly reduce the amount of water used and, depending on soil type and farm layout, the farmers applied between 13 per cent and 44 per cent less water.
The most spectacular savings were achieved by a fifth grower, Joe Linton, who made a quantum leap from manual furrow irrigation to an automated sub-surface drip irrigation system.
He was able to reduce the amount of water applied by 80 per cent on a problematic 19ha paddock.
Installation of the new underground drip irrigation system at Joe and Aaron Lintons’ home farm
Cane growers Heath and Don Salter and NQ Dry Tropics Sugar Team Leader Luke Malan Automated irrigation provides the grower with a schematic of their farm to make adjusting the automatic irrigation schedule as easy as pushing buttons.
He also saved more than 60,500kW.h in electricity — worth about $900 per hectare — and 49 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
The calculated annual reduction in DIN was 8 kg per ha which is the equivalent of approximately 40 kg/ha of applied N.
When Mr Linton and son Aaron installed the sophisticated underground drip system on their Home Hill home farm in 2019, it was the realisation of a 10-yearold ambition.
The Hurney Farm, a neighbouring block purchased eight years ago is largely managed by Joe Linton. The difference in the way the two farms are managed could not be more stark.
The Hurney Farm is a manually-operated furrowirrigation system, a different beast to the gold standard system running the home farm.
“Since we installed the drip system, I tell people, I live on this farm [the home farm], but I work on the other farm,” Joe Linton said.
Mr Attard said in his report that beyond financial and social benefits, the farming families were undoubtedly demonstrating their environmental credentials through their improved stewardship of the land, particularly as perceived by the public.
He said there was potential to realise further irrigation gains by optimising the flow rate and frequency of application for each block.
Father and son Clare growers Don and Heath Slater laud the lifestyle benefits of the change to automated irrigation.
“It’s empowering,” Don Salter said.
“It really has had a big impact on our lifestyle as well as on the running of the farm.”
CONNECT NOW:
Contact your preferred agronomic advisor, or NQ Dry Tropics to get involved. Visit the NQ Dry Tropics website at www.nqdrytropics.com.au for more details.
HERBERT CCS this week Tonnes to date % of total Total Crop
11.60 236,400 5.38 4.38 million tonnes
BURDEKIN
13.70 1.16 million 14.5 7.97 million tonnes
PROSERPINE
PLANE CREEK
11.83
12.82 1,270
121,000 0.10 1.64 million tonnes
9.33 1.30 million tonnes
Wilmar Sugar
THE 2021 crushing season is under way in all four of our milling regions, although wet weather has forced a temporary halt to crushing in the Herbert. Our Burdekin mills were first to kick off, on 8 June, followed by Plane Creek on 15 June and the Herbert on 18 June. Proserpine Mill got started yesterday. We expect to process a total of 15.27 million tonnes of cane this season and manufacture about 2.15 million tonnes of raw sugar. Our factories have so far processed about 10 per cent of the total estimated crop.
HERBERT
• Wet conditions have limited harvesting this week, and crushing came to a complete halt this morning. • We have used the wet weather breaks to undertake cleaning intermissions at both Herbert mills. • CCS levels are encouraging, with this week’s average slightly above budget.
BURDEKIN
• Factory reliability has been good and we are focussed on maximising throughputs
by lifting crushing rates. • Wet weather has been impacting cane supply, particularly in the southern part of the district. • Yield, weekly throughput and CCS are all sitting above budget.
PROSERPINE
• Crushing got under way just after 10am yesterday, following some start-up issues. • The factory is beginning to settle down and harvesting contractors are making good headway, with little impact from wet weather. • The average weekly CCS is
equal to the first week of last season, and is expected to reach comparable results.
PLANE CREEK
• The factory has performed well over the first few weeks of the season. • We have experienced some cane supply shortfalls, but throughput is increasing as ground conditions improve. • CCS is showing an encouraging upward trend, with this week’s average more than half a unit above the previous week.
On the Land is proudly supported by
THE new financial year marked an important change for Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL) cane growers in the Herbert River, Burdekin, Proserpine and Plane Creek milling districts, with new, simplified GST arrangements now in place.
QSL now applies GST to its transactions and issues an RCTI/Tax Invoice for these growers’ payments, enabling them to enter their QSL sugar income, expenses and GST information into their bookwork just like any other RCTI.
The GST change is part of a wider program of recent payment improvements, including new easy-read statements, payment notifications and the ability to access key payment information on the go via the QSL App.
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For further information about the improvements, visit www. qsl.com.au or contact your local QSL representative.
Power to grow our industry
CANEGROWERS Chairman Paul Schembri
THE start of July is an important time for sugarcane growers who use electricity to irrigate and CANEGROWERS is able to help with the important task of selecting the right Ergon tariff for your farm business.
Over the past decade, sugarcane growers have seen electricity costs rise more than 130%, threatening farm productivity and industry competitiveness. At the same time, Ergon, Energex and Powerlink have been earning record profits and contributing around a billion dollars a year to the Queensland Government.
CANEGROWERS believes electricity prices for irrigation should be capped at 16c/ kWh (being 8c/kWh for the network and 8c/kWh for the electrons) including the associated retail charges.
I am pleased to report that progress is being made!
Following representations from CANEGROWERS and the collaboration of CANEGROWERS members during a trial, a control load tariff for irrigators is now available as a standard tariff. Supplies under this tariff may experience the occasional interruption but it offers significant cost benefits.
It’s called T34 and is one of the tariffs confirmed in the 2021-2022 pricing options from Ergon.
From 1 July, T34 along with a suite of new small business tariffs (T20, T22A, T24, T24A or T24B) will be available. Depending on when you irrigate and how much electricity is used to pump water to your cane crop, you may be able to secure cost savings too by switching to one of these new tariffs.
If you irrigate, it is definitely worth looking closely at the options. Reading the fine print of your tariff may be complicated but it is important.
CANEGROWERS members can find some detailed analysis of the tariffs on offer on the Member Resources page of the CANEGROWERS website. There’s a selection tool which, if you put your own pump and electricity usage information in, will give you an indication of the tariff which may be best option for you. Your local CANEGROWERS office is there to help you as well.
It is especially important to consider your tariff selection because a number of farm tariffs which irrigators have traditionally used ceased to be available on 30 June. While the State Government is offering an automatic rebate to minimise bill shock growers on the traditional tariffs may face in moving to one of the new small business tariffs, not everyone will be eligible.
Tackling electricity sector reform is complicated. At every opportunity, CANEGROWERS is making submissions, appearing at hearings and putting forward the case for change.
CANEGROWERS campaigns for an electricity generation and distribution system that efficiently, sustainably and affordably delivers electricity because competitively priced electricity promotes the growth and development of irrigated agriculture and secures jobs in regional communities.
QSL Market Update
current as of 6 July 2021
Raw Sugar prices
• The new prompt ICE 11 raw sugar contract, October 2021, finished last week up 84 points week-on-week, opening on the Monday at 17.16 US cents per pound (USc/lb), before peaking on Thursday at 18.49 USc/lb and then closing the week at 18.15 USc/lb. • The July 2021 ICE 11 contract expiry was highlighted by a relatively small volume of sugar delivered to the tape, just 130,900 tonnes and all Brazilian sugar. The low volume is likely to be an indication of low sugar demand, but may also be symptomatic of the slow progress of Centre South
Brazil’s harvest providing the October 2021 contract some price support. • The latest Commitment of Traders data reported an increase on the net-long position as of 29 June 2021. The net speculator position is up 6000 lots to 191,000 lots net long. The United States Department of Agriculture has announced that their grain acreage and stocks are below market expectations which should incentivise speculators to continue to invest in agricultural commodities. • The Brazilian weather made the headlines again, but this time it was in relation to a potential frost occurring in two states that represent around 14% of Centre South
Brazil’s cane. Frosty weather can be disruptive and damaging to new crops, and the impact can be hard to measure. The news ignited a price spike on the October 2021 ICE 11 contract. However, it was short lived.
2021-SEASON RAW SUGAR PRICES
This is a whole-of-season ICE 11 price chart for the 2021 Season, based on the current 3:2:1 pricing ratio applicable to QSL Target Price Contract growers. Source: Bloomberg
Currency
• The Australian Dollar (AUD) and equities markets enjoyed a bit of a recovery last week, trading from a low of 74.45 US cents to a peak of 76.02 US cents. However, the Aussie failed once again to hold above the 76 US cent level on a live basis, following news that several
Australian states had gone back into COVID lockdowns. • Equities enjoyed new highs led by positive US economic data. Non-Farm Payrolls for June hit 850,000 jobs added, above the 720,000 expected. Leisure and hospitality accounted for 40% of the jobs in the month, and government hiring was also strong. • Domestically, Aussie job vacancies grew 23% since May to be 57% above pre-pandemic levels. The Australian trade surplus also showed positive signs, up to $9.7 billion amid solid export and import figures. This positive data, COVID headaches domestically, and the looming tightening of monetary policy in the US are still a concern. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is meeting today (6/7/21) and markets will be paying close attention to it. .
To read our full commentary in the QSL Market Update, please visit www.qsl.com.au or contact the Burdekin QSL team: Russell Campbell, Grower Relationship Manager 0408 248 385 Kristen Paterson, Grower Relationship Officer 0438 470 235 Rebecca Love, Grower Relationship Officer 0429 054 330
This report contains information of a general or summary nature. While all care is taken in the preparation of this report, the reliability, accuracy or completeness of the information provided in the document is not guaranteed. The update on marketing and pricing activity does not constitute financial, investment advice. You should seek your own financial advice. Nothing contained in this report should be relied upon as a representation as to future matters. Information about past performance is not an indication of future performance. QSL does not accept any responsibility to any person for the decisions and actions taken by that person with respect to any of the information contained in this report..
