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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Item How much nitrogen will that crop need? Incorporating climate forecasting to improve nitrogen management in the Wet Tropics : Final project 2015/075(Sugar Research Australia Limited, 2018) Everingham, Y; Biggs, J; Schroeder, B; Skocaj, D; Thorburn, P; Sexton, JDetermining the optimum amount of nitrogen that is required by the crop to maximise production, profitability and environmental outcomes is a challenging problem. The modelling approach taken in this project has balanced each of these complex elements to produce, and demonstrate, a novel and grower-friendly solution for the Tully canegrowing region. Optim-N Gets a Thumbs Up “How much nitrogen does my crop need?” depends on many interacting factors such as soil type, harvest management, position in the landscape and climate variability! This project took a unique and innovative approach to solving this problem and neatly embedded this process in a prototype tool called “Optim-N”. Instead of applying the same rate of nitrogen every year, Optim-N formulates nitrogen guidelines based on climate forecasts, for eight important soils in two climate zones in the Tully region, and three harvest dates. The processes behind Optim-N were tested against all available data, both from experiments and, where these were not available, expert opinion. When fully developed and operational, this tool will save farmers money by tailoring season- and site-specific recommendations for individual cane paddocks; improve water quality leaving farms and entering waterways to the Great Barrier Reef, and skill-up extension officers, allowing them to provide more targeted advice for farmers that factors in seasonal climate forecasts from the world’s best climate models. Two major activities are needed to take Optim-N from a prototype, to a widely used tool: Optim-N would need to be trialled with farmers in an action learning context so they could understand how it helps their decision making. This experience would also drive refinements of the Optim-N tool. It would also provide more empirical data for testing the science behind the tool, reducing the reliance on expert opinion and simultaneously increase trust and end-user confidence in the tool, which would accelerate adoption. The Optim-N prototype also needs input from professional software experts to take it to commercial levels of robustness and usability. When presented at a variety of forums, the Optim-N prototype receives a big “thumbs-up”.Item A review of nitrogen use efficiency in sugarcane(2015) Bell, MJ; Biggs, J; McKellar, LB; Connellan, J; Di Bella, L; Dwyer, R; Empson, M; Garside, AJ; Harvey, T; Kraak, J; Lakshmanan, P; Lamb, DW; Meier, E; Moody, P; Muster, T; Palmer, J; Robinson, N; Robson, A; Salter, B; Schroeder, B; Silburn, M; Schmidt, S; Skocaj, DM; Stacey, S; Stanley, J; Thorburn, P; Verburg, K; Walker, C; Wang, W; Wood, AThe Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the world's largest coral reef ecosystem, providing both substantial economic benefit to Australia and significant international ecological value. The health of the GBR is under pressure from sediments, pesticides and nutrients (especially nitrogen) discharged from nearby catchments. Discharge of nitrogen is of particular concern as it stimulates outbreaks of the Crown of Thorns Starfish, a major predator of GBR corals. Recent research has shown that the amount of nitrogen fertiliser applied in excess of crop uptake is an important determinant of nitrogen discharge from catchments, so increasing the efficiency of nitrogen use in cropping systems is an important step in protecting the economic and ecological benefits provided by the GBR. Importantly, an increase in nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) also offers opportunities to improve productivity and profitability of agricultural industries, with such benefits a major incentive for industry adoption and practice change. The Australian sugarcane industry is a significant contributor to the anthropogenic loads of nitrogen entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, with recent estimates in the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (2013) suggesting it contributes 18% and 56% of particulate and inorganic nitrogen loads, respectively. A focus on improving NUE in the Australian sugar industry to reduce these loads wherever possible is a logical outcome from these statistics. While the relative impact of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and particulate nitrogen (PN) is still uncertain, recent NUE forums in the sugar industry in 2014 identified clear target reductions in DIN that would be needed in order to significantly improve water quality in line with Reef Plan (2013-18) targets. The forum also identified a clear need for a joint industry-government funded research program to improve NUE in sugarcane cropping systems. The review conducted for this report was commissioned and funded by the Australian Government Reef Programme to provide a foundation for this joint NUE research program. The review was tasked with providing an improved understanding of past and current research effort and available field trial information (both published and unpublished) relating to nitrogen management in the sugar industry. From this perspective the review was then tasked with identifying research gaps and opportunities for future research projects and field trials that would collectively contribute to improving NUE from both agronomic and production perspectives as well as delivering significant reductions in nitrogen lost to waterways and the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. It is widely recognized that in any crop, the demand for N is determined by the size of the crop and the fundamental efficiency with which that crop produces a unit of biomass or harvested product from a kg of acquired N (N use efficiency - NUE). Therefore a good understanding of yield potential at the spatial scale of the productivity unit (i.e., farm, several blocks of similar productivity, individual blocks or within-block) about which N fertilizer management decisions (rate, form, placement, timing) are made is required, along with an understanding of how that yield potential varies with seasonal conditions. Collectively, this could be called seasonal 'block' (or productivity zone) yield potential, and it will produce a crop N demand that may vary from year to year. The sugar industry is currently operating at the district level (generally comprising several thousand cropped hectares across variable soil types and landscapes), and basing N demand for all growers in the district on the best farm yield ever achieved over a 20 year time frame. It is apparent that overall NUE could be improved by basing N fertiliser inputs on the seasonal yield potential of the productivity unit.Item Implementing methods for wider industry adoption : SRDC final report CSE009(2007) Jakku, E; Everingham, Y; Inman-Bamber, G; Thorburn, PMany of the challenges that the sugarcane industry faces are complex systems issues and R&D addressing these issues requires the active participation of industry stakeholders. A deeper understanding of processes that contribute to effective engagement between researchers and end-users is therefore essential to deal with the ongoing and evolving complexities of sugarcane systems. Without this knowledge, millions of dollars of R&D investment will be wasted and immeasurable environmental, social and economic benefits will be lost. The framework developed in this project has the potential to improve the way in which participatory research and technology development are conducted. However, in order to realise these impacts, the framework needs to be further developed to more clearly guide interactions between scientists, extension officers and farmers. Building capacity within the industry to implement learnings from this framework could help maximise the impact of complex technologies in the Australian sugarcane industry. This will assist the industry to profit rather than suffer from the complex challenges that it faces.Item Improved environmental outcomes and profitability through innovative management of nitrogen SRDC research project CSE011 final report(2008) Thorburn, P; Webster, T; Biggs, J; Biggs. I; Park, SNitrogen (N) fertiliser additions are an important contributor to productivity and profitability in intensive farming systems, including sugarcane production. However, applying N increases losses of N to the environment, and so all intensive agricultural industries face the challenge of maintaining productivity while minimising environmental impacts of N fertiliser use. This challenge has become particularly important for sugarcane production in Australia because community concern grows over the impact of N on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and sugarcane production has the largest use of N fertiliser in the region. It has been suggested that replacing the N lost from a crop through harvested cane and environmental losses will better align N fertiliser applications to the actual needs of sugarcane crops and the other potential sources of N available to the crop, and so improve the financial and environmental sustainability of the Australian sugarcane industry. In this project we tested and further developed an innovative N fertiliser management system, the N Replacement (NR) system.Item Integrating and optimising farm-to-mill decisions to maximise industry profitability : SRDC Final report CSE005(2006) Higgins, A; Prestwidge, D; Sandell, G; Antony, G; Laredo, L; Thorburn, PLate in the 1990’s, the Australian sugar industry recognised the need to achieve increased integration across its value chain, so as to reduce costs and increase international competitiveness. Past projects and independent assessments highlighted the harvesting and transport interface as being a high priority due to its current logistical inefficiencies and large potential economic benefits from removing these. The logistical inefficiencies were partly manifested by the social and ownership differences between these sectors. CSE005 aimed to explore and implement multiple opportunities to achieve economic benefits at the harvesting and transport interface of the value chain, using a combined participatory action research and technical modelling approach. The project used case studies, initially being the Mourilyan, Mossman and Plane Creek regions. Each case study had a local industry working group, to drive the process of building models, validation, and developing pathways to adoption. Mourilyan was the basis for the model development due to the broad range of opportunities that the region was to explore and due to its technical capacity to work closely with the research team. This research team was multi-disciplinary across CSIRO, BSES and Harvesting Solutions due to the broad range of modelling expertise required in harvesting and transport. One of the first steps with the Mourilyan case study was to conceptualise the value chain in harvesting and transport, which defined the key linkages and drivers across these sectors. This was the basis for formulating a modelling framework which defined the interactions between the industry component models, some of which already existed within the industry. A modelling framework approach was better than building a super-model since it was more transparent to the local industry working groups, more robust and had greater industry ownership. Throughout the life of the Mourilyan case study, the modelling work underwent many revisions (over a one-year timeframe) through the participatory action research process. During this process, the case study regions developed and refined options (or scenarios) for the models. This provided the case study working group with a growing understanding of best-bet options for the local region and the benefits across the participants of the chain. Opportunities identified across the case study regions collectively fell into the themes of: increased time window of harvest through staggering the start times of harvesters; harvest best practice; improved seasonal logistics; transition to larger harvesting groups; and rationalisation/upgrading of transport infrastructure. Their collective potential benefits from these options was in excess of $2.00/tc for some case studies. The increased time window of harvest option was adopted immediately in the Mourilyan and Mossman regions due to minimal change management and no capital investment requirements, and continued to be implemented throughout the life and beyond CSE005. Harvest best practice started to be piloted in Mourilyan as a result of CSE005, though its adoption was often hampered by pressure to fill bins and disruptions. Whilst the Mourilyan and Mossman regions agreed the time window of harvest options were beneficial, an evaluation based on factual data was impossible due major changes in the base line evaluation (e.g. changed number of harvesting groups, tonnes crushed at each mill) from 2002 to 2005. About mid-way through CSE005, the Mourilyan and Plane Creek case studies ended pre-maturely due to reasons beyond the control of the project team. Whilst this was a disappointment for the project team and for many of the participants in the local industry working groups, the Herbert quickly became a replacement case study.Item Precision agriculture; an avenue for profitable innovation in the Australian sugar industry, or expensive technology we can do without? : SRDC Final report CSE018(2007) Bramley, R; Webster, T; Thorburn, PPrecision Agriculture (PA) is an all-encompassing term given to a suite of technologies which promote improved management of agricultural production through recognition that the potential productivity of agricultural land can vary considerably, even over very short distances (a few m). The key technologies involved are yield monitors, remote and proximal sensing, the global positioning system (GPS) and geographical information systems. This project was conducted in response to the recognition by the Sugar Research and Development Corporation (SRDC) that the Australian sugar industry needs an informed basis from which to make decisions as to appropriate investment in PA. The project took the form of a review of published literature on PA and two industry workshops: the first conducted mid-project to provide the Industry Reference Group with an opportunity to review project progress and to make input to the recommendations emerging from it; the second conducted at the completion of the project to inform industry of the conclusions drawn and to promote industry input into SRDC’s priority setting with respect to future PA research. The review briefly discusses the philosophy underpinning PA, looks at PA research and application in a range of cropping systems, including sugarcane production, from around the world and considers the key drivers of short range spatial variability in these production systems. Constraints to the adoption of PA and its likely economic benefits are also considered in light of experiences from around the world. The opportunities that PA offers to the Australian sugar industry are identified, along with recommendations of further research, development and extension to facilitate its productive and profitable adoption. It is concluded that sugarcane production is ideally suited to the adoption of PA. However, a number of key tasks in Research, Development and Extension (RDE) are identified which will be required to enable its implementation in the Australian sugar industry.Item Increasing in-mill NIR effectiveness and communicating data to all sectors for improved decision making in the sugarcane value chain : SRDC Final report CSR038(2009) Markely, J; Griffin, D; Staunton, S; Thorburn, P; Crowley, TIn 2005 Mackay Sugar introduced changes to their cane payment formula that primarily used Near Infra Red (NIR) data as the basis for grower payments. The cane payment system was based on the principle of sharing risks and rewards, and removing obstacles to cooperation between industry sectors. The confidence gained from Mackay Sugar’s introduction of NIR technology and it’s subsequent acceptance by industry stakeholders in the Mackay Sugar region was initially the basis on which CSR developed a project proposal that sought as one of it’s objectives to further advance NIR technology in association with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) into precision agriculture (PA). Advancement in PA offered an opportunity to improve the productivity, profitability and environmental performance of the growing and harvesting sector through the use of NIR generated data. To gain the necessary benefits, further development of NIR calibrations, particularly in plant nutrients needed to be undertaken. At the commencement of the project CSR had an undertaking to introduce NIR technologies into their factories starting with an installation at Invicta Mill. Unfortunately after a series of events that eventually lead to CSR abandoning the introduction of NIR technology, the project was redefined at the start of the 2008 season under the management of Mackay Sugar staff. The failure of CSR to provide data as detailed in the original project proposal did have an effect on some outcomes and is reported in the details of the final report.