Completed projects and reports

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Sugar Research Australia, Sugar Research Development Corporation and BSES reports from completed research projects and papers.

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Author: search.filters.author.Croft, BJEnd date: 2009

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 29
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    Improving the Plant breeding selection system for Fiji Disease Resistance : SRDC final report BSS255
    (2005) Croft, BJ; Ridley, AW; Dhileepan, K; James, AP
    Fiji leaf gall (FLG) has caused major epidemics in the Australian sugar industry in the past. All new cultivars of sugarcane released in areas affected by FLG should be resistant to the disease. New cultivars have been tested for resistance in field trials in the past but the field trials are unreliable with only a third of trials in the last 28 years giving reliable ratings. The aim of this project was to develop a method of rating clones for resistance to FLG that would be accurate, reliable and practical to implement in the BSES-CSIRO variety improvement program.
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    Whole-farm planning for management of varieties to maximise productivity and reduce losses from diseases : SRDC final report BSS294
    (2009) Croft, BJ; Cox, MC; Millard, D; Burrows, A
    The appropriate selection of sugarcane varieties is critical for maximising profitability and sustainability for both growers and millers in the Australian sugarcane industry. Growers are faced with many complex decisions when selecting varieties such as yield potential, suitability to soil type, optimum mix of varieties to maximize sugar content throughout the season, resistance to diseases and pests, ratooning ability and tolerance to stresses such as drought, frost and flooding. This project has developed a web-based variety decision support tool and information resource for the Australian sugarcane industry named QCANESelect to help growers make the best variety choices.
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    Pest risk analysis of sugarcane for the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy
    (BSES, 1997) Croft, BJ; Magarey, RC
    The purpose of this pest risk analysis (PRA) is firstly to identify quarantine pests and pathogens which pose a threat to sugarcane, which may enter Australia through its northern borders into the area covered by the AQIS Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy (NAQS); and secondly to, identify measures which could be taken by various agencies to reduce the risks of entry or to minimise the impact of such pests should they arrive. The PRA was conducted as outlined in the FAO Standard "Guidelines for Pest Risk Analysis", and is one of a series of PRAs commissioned by NAQS.
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    AGR2008150 : Provision of research and development services for the Ord Sugarcane project
    (2009) Croft, BJ; Webb, B; Piperidis, G
    BSES has provided the research and extension services to the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) sugar industry under a cooperative agreement with the WA Dept of Agriculture and Food since 2003. This contract was terminated in April 2008 after the Ord sugar mill ceased operations in 2007. A new contract was signed to provide continued Plant breeding and plant pathology services to WA Dept of Agriculture and Food to continue plant-breeding trials, inspect sugarcane plots for diseases and pests and to advise WA Dept of Agriculture and Food on maintenance of sugarcane varieties so they could be available for potential new sugar industries in the ORIA.
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    Technical assessment of survival of smut spores in bales of sugarcane trash
    (BSES, 2008) Croft, BJ
    This assessment considers the survival of smut spores in relation to the proposal to store baled trash until there was a low risk of viable spores being present.
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    Smut-proofing the Australian industry - ensuring a reliable cane supply through reduced genetic vulnerability to sugarcane smut
    (BSES, 2009) Croft, BJ; Berding, N
    Since the smut incursion and subsequent spread of the disease breeding for smut resistance has become an essential priority for the BSES-CSIRO Variety Improvement program. The strategy that has been adopted includes the SmutBuster program which aims to maintain advances in breeding for productivity while ensuring that all new varieties have adequate smut resistance.
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    Reducing the Australian sugar industry's genetic vulnerability to sugarcane smut : SRDC final report BSS256
    (2007) Croft, BJ; Berding, N
    Sugarcane smut was recorded for the first time in Australia in July 1998 in the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) and was identified in the Bundaberg/Isis, Central and Herbert regions of Queensland in 2006. Sugarcane smut can cause losses from 30-100% in susceptible varieties. The objective of this project was to rate Australian commercial varieties, advanced selections in the BSES/CSIRO selection programs, and parental clones for resistance to smut. The ratings will be used to provide smut- resistant varieties to the Australian sugar industry and to assist the breeding program to increase the frequency of smut-resistant genes in breeding populations.This project continues the work commenced in the SRDC project BSS214 Screening of Australian Germplasm for Resistance to Sugarcane Smut. The smut-screening trials were conducted on Madura Island by the Indonesian Sugar Research Institute (ISRI) under contract to BSES.
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    Sugarcane smut yield-loss estimates - eastern Australia 2006 : Responses to questions raised by the consultative committee on emergency plant pests
    (BSES, 2006) Croft, BJ; Allsopp, PG; Egan, BT; Hogarth, DM
    This document has been prepared by BSES scientists with extensive experience with sugarcane smut. It is based on our reviews of published literature and first-hand experience with smut in the Ord River Irrigation area and Childers-Bundaberg regions of Australia.
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    Influence of harvester basecutters on ratooning of sugarcane : SRDC Final report BSS123
    (2005) Hurney, AP; Croft, BJ; Grace, D; Richards, DR
    Current single row mechanical sugarcane harvesters use twin rotary basecutters with multiple blades to produce an impact cut in the stalk at or near ground level. However, the cane stubble is often damaged during harvesting, which is considered to be caused by the basecutter. Many instances of poor ratooning have been attributed to either basecutter damage increasing the risk of infection by stalk diseases, or due to a reduction in the number of viable buds. While this matter was discussed regularly, there were no data that quantified the level of damage occurring in the field or the relationship between stubble damage and ratooning. In addition, if stubble damage was affecting ratooning, harvesting and cultural practices contributing to stubble damage need to be identified. This was addressed in this project by conducting surveys in harvested fields in the Tully, Burdekin and Mackay districts to assess the level of damage that occurred during harvest.
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    Improving planting systems for sugarcane : SRDC Final report BSS208
    (2004) Robotham, BG; Croft, BJ
    This project has researched the major factors affecting the establishment of a sugarcane crop. Adoption of a systems approach has resulted in an improved planting system that matches the requirements of the growing of seed cane, production of high-quality billets and meters and places the billets at rates to ensure optimum crop yields.It was initially realised that the supply of high-quality seed billets was critical to ensure an improvement in the planting system of sugarcane. Developing recommendations for growers to produce the high-quality, disease-free seed sugarcane suitable for planting billets was an essential requirement. Many cane treatments and additives were trialled, but many effective treatments were found not to be cost effective. However, many tasks were identified that growers can undertake to ensure sound and erect planting cane. The machine cutting of plants has previously been a major deficiency as mechanised harvesters were not developed to cut high quality, low damage billets. This project has quantified the requirements of a seed billet-cutting harvester and machine modifications were field tested. Sound recommendations for growing planting cane and cutting this cane to produce sound billets have been developed and extended to the industry. The development of recommendations for high-quality seed billets is a major success of this project.The project has successfully undertaken the first detailed review of the requirements and current operational performance of current billet planters. An improved billet-metering system, the first truly precision metering of billets, was developed as a replacement from the crude mass-flow metering systems of various form used by the sugarcane industry. Planter characteristics, such as billet drop height, have been addressed, as has matching the billet meter to minimum-soil-disturbance planter components.One critical operational requirement that this precision billet-metering system had to fulfil was to be compatible with the planting characteristics of the double-disc groundtool developed by BSES. This goal was achieved, and a prototype billet planter produced that incorporated the double-disc opener and the precision billet-metering system. This system allows planting rates to be halved compared to the rates of current billet planters, but the use of high-quality seed billets is an essential requirement of this new system. The developed metering system is a radical departure from the elevating slat-type meters current used on all billet planters and commercialisation of this planting system must be carefully planned.When proposed, a significant outcome of this project was to investigate and develop technologies to protect planting billets by coatings that would prevent the ingress of rotting diseases and slow desiccation of the billet. Much knowledge has been acquired and future studies are suggested, but current technology is not considered suitable for commercial usage.Adoption of all the technologies developed within this project will take time, but industry awareness of the need for change is high. The adoption process is well advanced, although adoption varies between canegrowing regions. Due to the current state of the sugarcane industry, adoption will occur in a series of steps, but this is considered appropriate, as growers can learn as they adopt new components of the system. Certain components of the system must be adopted prior to others. For example, the production of high-quality planting billets is an essential requirement, but is applicable to all growers irrespective of what type of planter they use.This project clearly illustrates the value of a multi-discipline team adopting a systems approach to a major sugarcane industry problem.