Browsing by Author "Chapman, LS"

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Evaluate sugar beet for potential to produce sugar at Mackay Sugar Experiment Stations : final report TE93005
(BSES, 1993) Chapman, LS; Usher, JF
Can sugar beet be profitably grown at Mackay? Sugar yields from beets are continuing to increase in overseas countries. Results from experiments at Kalamia Estate in the Burdekin area indicated that sugar beet out-yielded the sugarcane variety Q117 for sugar production on highly sodic soils by as much as 400% and gave similar yields on medium sodicity soils (T Morgan, Pers. comm.). There could therefore be an opportunity for increasing production of sugar by planting sugar beet in areas which are marginally suitable for canegrowing due to soil sodicity or salinity and cane diseases. Sugar beets may be useful as a break-crop for sugarcane, thus reducing the build-up of soil pathogens. Sugar beet is used as a break-crop in rotation with cereals in Europe. Heat tolerant varieties of sugar beet are now being developed to grow in tropical climates. This project aimed to: Measure the yield of sugar from six heat tolerant varieties of sugar beet grown at the Sugar Experiment Station, Mackay.
Evaluation of biostil dunder and mixtures with nitrogen fertilisers for sugarcane nutrition
(1990) Chapman, LS; Usher, JF
The aims of this project were: (a) to measure the cane and sugar yield responses from the application of biostil dunder on its own and in mixtures with nitrogen fertilisers in field trials; and (b) to assess the suitability of these treatments for sugarcane nutrition. These treatments relate to a possible management strategy on cane farms, ie to broadcast sufficient phosphorus fertiliser on fallow land for the crop cycle, and then use a mixture of dunder and nitrogen fertilisers to provide the total N and K requirements for each crop in a single field application.
Evaluation of nutrient enriched biodunder for sugarcane : a review
(1995) Chapman, LS
The review looks at the advantages and disadvantages of fertilising with biodunder\urea compared with applying biodunder and urea separately. The review concludes with 6 recommendations for the use of biodunder\urea\sulfuric acid based on the results of experiments carried out.
Improving the efficiency of nitrogen fertilisation of sugarcane under minimum till and trash conservation cultural conditions (Final report SRDC Project BS37S)
(1992) Chapman, LS; Freney, R; Denmead, OT; Wood, AW; Saffigna, PG
Objectives of the experiments were (1) Determine the extent of NH3 volatilisation when urea and ammonium sulfate are applied to the surface of a trash blanket in four cane-growing regions. Evaluate the effect of various placements of urea in a trash blanket under wet and dry moisture regimes by quantifying the amount of N recovered in the soil-plant system.
Improving the ratooning ability of sugarcane : SRDC Final report BS100S
(1996) Chapman, LS; Wilson, JR
Good ratooning cultivars has attributes of rapdi canopy development, associated with early development of adequate stalk numbers, for increased interception of light in early growth, an stability of harvested stalk weight to maintaine yields over the ratoon cycle. These conclusions were drawn from Project BS7S conducted at Tully and Mackay for plant crops and two or three ratoons, respectively. This current project had the objective to determine if these attributes were applicable to older ratoon crops grown at Mackay.A concern with the early project was that geno x crop and genotype x year interactions were confounded. In order to overcome this concern, sixth and seventh ratoon crops of rainfed and irrigated cane were grown adjacent to irrigated crops of plant and first ratoons in this project. All three experiments had the same six cultivars known to have differenet ratooning potential. Comparing the sugar yields for plant and first ratoon with sixth and seventh ratoon crops, there were three groups of cultivars with regard to yield: no decline Q124, Q138); slight decline (q87, NCo310); and large decline (Q50, Q68).The good ratooning cultivats achieved production through the attributes established in the early project. Early canopy development was also associated with cultivars which maintained stool production, that is, they did not develop gaps following harvester damage when crops lodged. The gappiness of ratoons of the good ratooning cultivar Q124 was higher than that for Q138 and NCo310, two cultivars which suffered no harvester damage and developed few gaps. Gaps were the sum of distances greater than 0.5 m between stools. Although Q124 developed 20% gaps along the cane row, individual gaps were usually less then 0.75 m and early canopy development was only slightly retarded and the cultivar was able to compensate for this disability. When yield was adjusted for gappiness, sugar production per stool for all cultivars was shown to be relatively constant over the complete crop cycle. This result has significant industry implications for it indicates that yields in ratoon crops can be stabilised if the stool population cane be maintained. Therefore, reducting harvester damage to stools appears to be a key to maintaining production during long ratooning cycles.Returns were calculated for varying crop cycle lengths from plant/fallow to plant/seven ratoons/fallow, assuming the current price of sugar and current costs for fixed, operating and harvesting expenses. Return data followed the trends for yield, and there were three distinct groups of cultivars, namely: Q124, Q138 high; Q87, NCo310 medium; and Q50, Q68 low. The high and medium groups of cultivars had a plateauing of returns with crop cycles between four and seven ratoons, while the low group had plateauing between two and seven ratoons. There were large differences in maximum returns which averaged 1946, 1425 and 628 $/ha for the high, medium and low producing cultivars respectively, for irrigated cane. The newest varieties had the highest returns, indicating that plant breeders have been successful in releasing higher performing cultivars between 1946 and 1994, the period over which these cultivars were first released for commercial production. Irrigated cane gave higher returns than rainfed cane and the new cultivars had larger increases in returns form irrigation that the old cultivars.
Improving the yields of ratoon crops of sugarcane : SRDC Final report BS7S (AMENDED)
(1993) Chapman, LS; Ferraris, R; Ludlow, MM; Hurney, AP
The economics of sugarcane growing improve with the number of ratoon crops which can be grown from a single planting. In Australia, declining yields with increase in the number of ratoons limit a cycle to three to five ratoons, according to district. However, studies by BSES indicate that the most economic strategies involved growing up to six ratoons. If this decline in yield could be reduced, then more ratoons could be obtained from a single planting with the associated economic benefits.
Improving the yields of ratoon crops of sugarcane : SRDC Final report BS7S
(SRDC, 1992) Chapman, LS; Ferraris, R; Ludlow, MM; Hurney, AP
The economics of sugarcane growing improve with the number of ratoon crops which can be grown from a single planting. In Australia, declining yields with increase in the number of ratoons limit a cycle to three to five ratoons, according to district. However, studies by BSES indicate that the most economic strategies involved growing up to six ratoons. If this decline in yield could be reduced, then more ratoons could be obtained from a single planting with the associated economic benefits.
Irrigation water use in the Eton irrigation scheme
(1994) Chapman, LS
The objectives of the survey were: to determine irrigation management strategies used by the canegrowers; to determine water use efficiency for individual blocks; and to identify irrigation practices which affect water use efficiency.
Project 921 - rates of biodunder for sugarcane : final report
(1995) Chapman, LS
The BSES recommendation for a maximum application rate is considered adequate to maximise returns and production for ratoon crops on the majority of Mackay soils. As the experiments were conducted only on ratoon crops, no evidence is available to allow comment on the fertiliser K requirements of plant cane. The use of biodunder on caneland is highly recommended as an environmentally friendly way of recycling plant nutrients, thereby reducing fertiliser costs, reducing imports of fertilisers and increasing cane production and profitability.
Project No 2025: Final report bench testing of new nitrogen products for potential ammonia volatilisation: when boradcast onto soil or sugarcane trash (N-gold "A", N-gold "B")
(1996) Chapman, LS; Haysom, MBC; Makepeace, P
N-Gold "A" and N-Gold "B" are granulated products containing urea and calcium oxide with 42.4 and 43.2 % N and 1.5 and 1.3 % Ca respectively. When broadcast onto soil or a green cane trash blanket, ammonia volatilisation losses were not different to those from prilled or granulated urea when tested in the maboratory. These products produced a more alkaline solution than urea and, in theory, this would slightly increase the ammonia volatilisation losses, but this did not happen in this experiment.N-Gold "A" and N-Gold "B", when analysed for N content in 0.5g samples, showed more variation than for the prilled or granulated urea. This variation is unlikely to cause any deleterious effects when used as a fertiliser but could have implications for quality control
Report on evaluation of nutrient enhancement of biodunder for cane growth
(1992) Chapman, LS
Three yield trials were conducted to evaluate strategies for the use of biodunder as a fertiliser for sugarcane. Cane growth in the trials was adversely affected by the weather, which was dry in summer, followed by exceptionally heavy and prolonged rainfall, and then drought conditions in autumn and winter. Under these abnormal conditions cane yield was lower than normal. The conclusions drawn from the results of these trials must therefore be extrapolated with caution, for they may not apply to more normal growing conditions.