Farming systems and production management

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://elibrary2.sugarresearch.com.au/handle/11079/13844

Research outcomes: Growers and harvesters benefit from the ongoing research in productivity improvement, production management and agronomical techniques. Developed technologies and management practices that enhance productivity and demonstrate a high rate of return on investment.

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Innovative farmers in the Herbert : Environmental protection agency project final report
(2007) Shannon, G; Park, G
Farming systems innovation has been taking place in the Herbert region since the early days of the sugar industry. During the 1960s and 1970s a complete change in the farming system took place with the introduction of green-cane trash blanketing. From the 1990s the greatest change taking place is the tackling of yield-decline issues, based on improvements to soil health using a whole-farm system centred on reduced tillage, legume fallows and controlled traffic. This project was developed to create a 'snapshot' of three different groups of growers at varying stages of implementation of the whole-farm system. It was considered that this would aid the adoption process through peer learning and group extension processes.
Share-farming options for the Australian sugar industry : SRDC Final report BSS298
(2007) McGuire, PJ
The Australian sugar industry is faced with an aging farmer population, high land prices that limit expansion and a large number of small farms. Share farming and leasing have the potential to solve these three problems.This report presents a snap shot of share-farming and farm-leasing practices in four cane-growing regions: Cairns, Mackay, Bundaberg-Maryborough and New South Wales. Key learnings from the project include:
Sugar yield decline joint venture, phase 2 : SRDC Final report
(2006) Garside, AL; Bell, MJ; Pankhurst, CE; Stirling, GR; Magarey, RC; Blair, BL; Moody, PJ; Robotham, BG; Braunack, MV; Agnew, JA
Research in phase 2 has greatly increased our understanding of how farming systems operate, the key components of farming systems, and how they can be manipulated to provide better outcomes.
A participatory approach towards improving industry sector profits through improved harvesting efficiency : SRDC Final report BSS227
(2002) Agnew, JR
Recent productivity gains through the introduction of high yielding varieties, green cane harvesting, improved drainage and irrigation have resulted in larger, mostly lodged crops with increased suckering. As a result, ccs levels have declined, dirt in supply and extraneous matter levels have increased, and stool damage at harvest is obvious. Growers do not always connect their role in crop presentation to ease of harvest and resultant cane quality. Failure to hill up plant cane adequately and match it to harvester basecutter angle; inconsistent row spacing and lack of attention to farm layout, headlands and haul roads are the main deficiencies. Harvester operators and harvest crews may also have goals conflicting with cane quality and quality of ground job. The standard system of harvester payment, which is based on $/tonne, rewards speed of operation. Stool damage, cane loss and poor billet quality result. The mills? transport limitations and need for continuous supply may impose restrictions on harvesting where by the harvester must deliver a fixed quantity of cane within a short time frame. This can result in poor ground job and higher cane losses (because fan speed is increased in an attempt to achieve cleaning at high pour rates). Short and damaged billets can result from pressure to achieve high pour rates and high bin weights. Encouraging harvesting under wet conditions results in field damage. The viability of the north Queensland sugar industry is in jeopardy. Industry leaders believe there are large productivity and profitability gains to be made by adopting harvesting best practice (HBP).
Best management practice for sugarcane varieties : SRDC Final report BSS 234
(2002) Telford, D; Wallis, D
This has been both a challenging and rewarding project within the northern sugar industry. Increasing economic pressure in the wet tropics has seen a need to develop and adopt better short- and long-term strategies to increase industry profitability. ?What variety do I plant?? This is probably the single most important issue given the least attention by growers. This decision remains in place for a number of crop cycles and subsequent management of these varieties will directly affect farm profitability. Better management of varieties in both a short- and long-term strategy will enable growers to increase their ccs and improve their farm profitability.Selection and management of varieties is a complex process, which involves more than the yield and ccs of varieties. It involves suitability to soil type, ratoonability, pest and disease issues, ease of planting, herbicide tolerance, ability to withstand harvest under difficult conditions, nutrient requirements, harvesting rosters and many other factors that may override planned decisions such as rainfall.A grower group process was used to facilitate greater debate of these issues by growers and testing variety best practice on their farms using an on-farm participatory trial program. The full costing of the benefits and consequences of different management options has enhanced growers decisions of ?what variety do I plant?? as well as other farming practices.The strength of this project was that it allowed growers to fully implement and evaluate a range of real variety management options that they have chosen as being best for their situation.The results from this project have made growers more aware of the consequences when choosing varieties to plant. The presentation of trial results in dollars per hectare has proved very beneficial. A lot of discussion has been generated at group meetings as a result of this information. Growers have appreciated the opportunity to discuss these results with their peers. Growers are more aware now of how important it is to calculate net returns and determine what variety or farm practice is more profitable on their farm.Information delivered to grower groups as part of this project has provided growers with the skills and knowledge to conduct reliable trials on their farms. Growers should now be able to compare different variety performance and farm management practices on their own farms to meet their individual situations and determine the most profitable practice.With the ability of growers to better test varieties for their individual situations, varieties released to the industry will have a fairer assessment based on individual needs and profitability rather than broad area recommendations.Conducting market research into what the industry wanted in the form of variety information through focus groups proved extremely useful. The original project intention was to devise a Variety Best Management Practice (BMP) Manual. However, it was quite clear from these focus groups that a complex manual was not wanted, but information in a simple and concise format was requested.This project has seen the successful use of group extension to target a large number of growers in the sugar industry. Since the commencement of this program, most northern mills, in conjunction with BSES, have established productivity groups similar to the participatory BMP process. The formation of these groups within mill areas provides an avenue to meet with larger numbers of growers more regularly than could be achieved on a one-to-one basis. This also provides an excellent opportunity for multi-agency input to discuss timely research and farming issues. One-to-one extension is still an important part of extension in the northern sugar industry. However, group extension is fostering greater discussion and exchange of ideas between growers and mill areas. This is extremely important in times of increased economic pressure.This program has been the starting point of many increases in productivity and profitability in the northern sugar industry, through better management of current varieties and the availability of more information to make variety decisions on individual farms.
Farm assessment of productivity limits in the wet tropics : SRDC Final report BSS159
(2000) Hurney, AP; Bown, PA
There is an ongoing concern in the wet tropics over productivity levels, particularly with regard to low CCS. Previously, productivity trends within the region have been assessed utilising mill area statistics (Smith, 1991; Hurney, 1995; Leslie and Wilson, 1996). These studies indicate there has been a negative trend for CCS over the last 30 years in the wet tropics. Consequently, sugar yields have remained relatively static during the same period despite an increase in cane yield and, therefore, economic viability has been adversely affected.While mill area statistics can be of value in assessing broad issues, they suffer from the disadvantage that problem definition may be limited because causal factors can be confounded. This project has assessed productivity trends at the farm and district level rather than mill level. It was considered that assessment of production functions at this level rather than the mill level may provide a clearer understanding of factors influencing productivity, particularly CCS trends. The concept was to focus on high performance farms to determine if there were exceptions to general productivity trends. If exceptions could be identified, detailed evaluation of this group might assist in a better definition of the problem, diagnosis of causes and may even identify some solutions to factors influencing productivity.

Farming systems and production management

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