The Harvest is Finished.

We got finished harvesting today it was a pleasant change to finish with dust in the air and not be bogging in mud. Haven't got all the results yet but we seem to have gone not to badly considering the wet start and the late finish from last year.It looks like our summer weather pattern has come back to what we used to see, it was 42 degrees C yesterday which is getting up there, however that was inside the house with the fans going and windows open at 3 pm. I don't know what the temp was outside? This is how summer is usually is around here hot days and storms building in the afternoon. All the cane is off but I still have 30 drills to go in the plant cane, I will be glad to get out of a machine cab, I have been either in the cane harvester or in the tractor for the last 2 weeks, anyway bring on christmas.

Final pass.

The final pass probably for at least a couple of crop cycles, this is why we have had to put so much effort into getting soil into a fine enough tilth to be able to form the right profile.Even though it looks a bit rough now after irrigation the soil will settle and after the first pass with the harvester the profile will be complete, and subsequent crops will be harvested with little to no disturbance to the bed.Man it is slow going though it has taken me a week to get to this point and I have still got another two thirds of the paddock to go.Ideally we would irrigate and get the crop up a bit more so I could move faster through the crop, however we have already had storms building and as yet have not had any rain, so we can't risk not having the row profile formed for harvest.Another reason why we try to avoid spring planting, Man I have probably got another 3 or 4 days in the tractor, hopefully before any rain.

Compaction and Soil Structure.

Hows this for a real life example of just how compaction effects soil structure, and soil moisture holding capacity. The photo shows the areas where the tractors have run (six passes spraying and cultivating)the soil is quite dry, by comparison in between the two rows of cane which has had no traffic at all is still very moist. The irrigation was down the wheel tracks so that is where it was most concentrated but due to compaction it could not hold the same moisture as the uncompacted soil between the cane rows. This effect is from relatively light machinery so it is very easy to see why a 30 plus tonne machine does so much damage to soil structure. We are applying the top up of nitrogen and canegrub control both 150mm under the soil surface, and I am preparing the paddock for one more final pass, to form the row profile to match our harvester.

Summer is here.

The weather seems to be back to it's old pattern, hot days, and storms building in the afternoon's. It was 37 degrees Celsius in the house at 3 o'clock today(smoko time) and we are only just into summer, lets hope the storms go around us for the next three weeks at least, we are scheduled to finish the crush on the 7th of December.We have once again had to spray our plant cane to manage the weed population, the cane is growing pretty well considering,we used our shielded sprayer with Shirquat under all the shields and between rows, this is a knock-down chemical with no residual it simply burns off the grass.Other than that it has been full on irrigation , with the high temperatures and the wind we are losing 12mm per day out of our evaporation pans. It is when we have hot dry conditions like this that you can really see the benefits of our trash retention and the whole farming system. Our neighbours who don't retain trash and are not on controlled traffic usually irrigate three times to our one, we will this year be looking at measuring just how much moisture we can now hold in our permanent beds.I have some pictures of the plant cane after spraying and some of the ratoons at different stages of growth.

Local Radio Interview.

Only three weeks of the harvest to go, man where has the year gone!Have been harvesting ,setting up irrigation, and irrigating ratoons, doesn't sound like much but it has been keeping me busy.The highlight of the last couple of weeks has been an interview at the Invicta sugar mill with the Queensland branch of the Australian Broadcasting Commission country hour. I was asked about my Nuffield experience so far, and how what I saw overseas has changed how I think about the Australian Sugarcane Industry. It was a good experience and the interview went pretty well, it was a great chance to share my experiences with a bigger audience.

If you can't measure it, you can't manage it!

We had the guys from our research organisation, BSES up the other day to measure harvesting losses. They have developed a very robust testing system that lets the harvester operator,(in this case Me)know how to minimize the losses from the harvester.I won't go into the whole process, basically they pick up all the residue from where the harvester has passed in a given area I think it was a couple of square metres back to bare soil, it is then mulched , and a portion is mixed with water and blended, then it is put in a press and the juice is then tested for a brix reading and that is correlated back to a tonnes of sugar per hectare basis.Our results were on par with industry standard but I did learn a few ways to tweak the forward speed and extractor fan speed to suit the crop. It appears that the larger the crop the more important it is to have correct harvester set-up. When you think about it, this harvesting operation is where the rubber hits the road so to speak, this is where we generate the income for the year.At the end of the day it all comes back to the numbers,and in our case we are quite happy to receive this advice and change the set-up a little, after all this is research that we have paid for!

Lots Happening!

It has been a busy couple of weeks, lots going on farm wise as well as attending the Nuffield spring tour held in Toowoomba this past weekend, in fact I have'nt made it home yet Iam in Townsville 150k's from home.I had the great privelage of representing my sponsor Sugar Research and Development Corporation to present the Nuffield Scholarship for the Sugarcae Industry for 2013, and it was awarded to a well deserving farmer from Oakenden near Mackay Joe Muscat.It was a great opportunitty to catch up with the guys from my year and watch them present there study findings, I will be presenting next September as I could not tour due to the Cane Harvest this year.I can not believe that we have not seen each other for almost a year , it seemed like it was only yesterday,even our old mate from Canada Crosby Devitt made the trip. It was a bit of a juggling act to get to the Nuffield tour as this s the busiest time for us on the farm,as well as Harvesting this years crop, we have applied some liquid fertiliser on the plant cane in he form of Liquid One Shot ( a by product of producing ethanol from molasses). Then we did a light zonal cultivation to incorporate it and also get rid of the new weeds that have emerged. Irrigation of ratoons has also commeneced,this is the first irrigation since harvet in July!this fact really highlights the combined benefits of the farming system that we have adopted, the soil because of our management now has the capacity to retain much more moisture.That is an important fact because water is our highest imput cost and obviously an important resource. I will end today with a quote from my mate Ray Vella. "Live life like you will die tommorrow but farm like you will farm forever"

Technology ?

We have finished the liquid fertiliser applicator, the fabrication was the easy bit! Technology is a fantastic thing when it works , and we now have it working but man what a pain it has been to understand how this system likes to work, it has very fine tolerances for error, and running two separate operations has seen some issues arise that have not been foreseen by programmers. This highlights a problem in Agriculture that being that the on ground end users are far removed from the actual programmers,and things that work fine in theory don't necessarily work in the field.However with persistence and patientence from all involved (and a few more GREY hairs)success!! On another note I gave my first presentation about my Nuffeild experience so far, it seemed to go Ok and people asked questions so I assume they enjoyed my story.Whilst preparing I went back through my notes and it seems like ages ago that I travelled, I came across something that a image consultant in London had said "80% of people are followers, 10% of people are optimists, 10% of people are pessimists" It made me think, where do you fit ?

Weed Control!!!!

This is one of the major reasons we try not to spring plant, weed control becomes very important with only short windows of opportunity to get on top of the population. Man the grass always seems to grow faster than cane, and we really have to make sure we get effective use from the chemicals applied. This is where the system my brother Terry installed really comes into it's own and coupled to the shielded spray unit allows us to use less expensive knock-down chemicals under the shields.This has two major advantages, firstly it reduces the use of residual herbicides that are more expensive, and drastically reduces the chance of off site impacts.For example we save 35% of the more expensive selective herbicide compared to using a conventional flat boom. Also using the GPS controlled system we are able to spray at two different rates with two different chemicals in one operation. It also has the benefit of precise control of where, and the amount applied, for example : if the tractor speed slows towards the end of the rows the system still applies the correct litres of spray per Hectare, and the spray system will only spray within the boundary of the field automatically turning off as it cross the field boundary. Cool stuff !!

More International Visitors,

Last week we had some guys from Mauritius, and Tanzania come and have a look at what we are doing farming wise. They had come with Dr Alan Garside who was the leader of the Sugar Yield Decline Joint Venture, that is responsible for a lot of the research, and development that we have implemented. It is still perplexing to me that people from around the world think so highly of the work that was done here, and yet the Australian Sugar Industry seems so unsatisfied with it's research and development programs.It was clear to me just how advanced our R/D systems have moved , these guys were most impressed with our approach to whole farm planning, not just concentrating on one aspect of growing cane.

Implement modification!

Once again we find ourselves in the shed building/modifying existing implements to suit our farming systems.In 2005 we were on a farm visit with a very innovative farming family, and they said one thing that really stuck with me.He said "that he was sick of farming around machinery and had made the decision to make the machinery suit the farming system". In a nut shell we for too long have been constrained with our farming to what the machinery manufactures build for the majority or traditional farmer. I saw this everywhere I travelled overseas and was told on numerous occasions how farmers would like to do things differently but could not buy "off the shelf". I am not being critical of manufacturers, they respond to the signals they are sent. We have decided to make machinery to fit our farming systems, this involves a lot of thought and sleepless nights hoping that it will work, however the work is paying off. I guess if people didn't try something different we would still be riding horses and not driving cars. You can see the plant cane emerging in the photo of the tractor with the zonal tillage implement that we modified, it works out to about $5/Ha, more cost effective than chemicals. The implement in the shed is a variable rate liquid fertiliser applicator that is run by the same Trimble system I described in an earlier post.

Visitors from Sudan.

The cane is starting to emerge, but I will show you that when more is out.We had a guy that used to work as a senior researcher in our Sugar industry, and now works as a private consultant for Sugar Industries around the world come to visit with some clients from the Republic of Sudan. This is the third year that we have hosted people from other countries to have a look at the farming system that we have implemented. I find it ironic that the research that was conducted on behalf of industry participants in Australia is valued more highly by people from around the world than by the people here in Australia.Speaking with Chris he assures me that Australia's Sugar cane farming systems are cutting edge and leading the world, I suppose that is why he brings clients here to Australia! I wonder if the outcome of the upheaval (of what although not a perfect industry R/D), will bring the future results of what we have already achieved?

Cane is planted .

We got finished planting last Monday and have irrigated to ensure enough moisture is available for good germination.It was good to see all our design work with the paddock grades and levels for the recycle pit, have all worked out great. The advantage of capturing the tail water will be had year on year and is already evident with this first irrigation, because the pit was empty we used water from the irrigation system for the first three days ,and then we have been able to close those valves and water with the recycled water.Probably doesn't sound like that much of a big deal but we have been planning this for more then 10 years, and to finally see it all work is a big achievement, as I was travelling with my scholarship, water was always a top priority and to have a more secure source is like money in the bank. It has only been a week and some cane shoots are starting to emerge I will add more photo's when the cane has emerged more.

Planting Cane .

Started planting cane yesterday, had the usual glitches, we have changed the way the planter feeds billets and have had to recalibrate the drive to achieve the billet density that we want.This meant altering the billet length as well because we doubled the number of flights that pick up the billets, a bit of trial and error but we are pretty happy with what we have now , I suppose we will see what the emergence looks like, that will be the ultimate measure of success.Once we got things sorted we are planting around 10 Ha per day, this is my brother and I and our Dad drives the haulout for us while we cut the billets to plant. The tractor has three tanks fitted , the first large white tank is for liquid fertiliser, the second is for fungicide,and the ones on the planter are for insecticide (crickets and wire worm). We originally bought this planter in 1988 as a single furrow billet planter at 1.53m centres, in 2007 we converted it to what you see now two row double disc opener on 2m wheel centres.

Preparing to plant Cane.

Well the weather is finally starting to look more like a normal winter pattern, and although we could not autumn plant we now will have to spring plant it is not what we normally like to do but unfortunately farming is all about working around mother nature.It is starting to warm up enough now (soil temperature is above 20 degrees C) even though we have still had some frost on some mornings.So what we are doing now is the second last pass of cultivation that this paddock will probably see,(there will be one more pass at the out of hand stage to complete the beds) this is the bed-former we built to allow us to plant and this forms the 2m spacings for traffic, and the .8m furrows where cane will be planted. All going well I will be able to post some photo's of the billet planter in action in the next few days. Just to highlight how good this RTK steering system is checkout how the tractor is tracking in the wheel tracks that where left from spraying out the nut grass.

Harvesting Again !!!

Well it has dried out and we have been harvesting again, since the end of last month the weather outlook looks fine from here on fingers crossed. Controlled traffic really pays off especially when you have the rain that we have had, even though the ground is still wet the compacted wheel tracks act like gutters and the larger uncompacted growing area has better internal drainage. Because we have around 25 Ha ratooning we have applied some nutrient this has been applied in a liquid form and is a by-product from the distilling process for Bio-fuel, this is part of our nutrient plan and we plan to add the total required amount in another two applications at later stages of crop growth. It has been shown that split applications is more economical, and effective with less potential for offsite environmental impacts. These further applications will be done with our variable rate controlled spray/applicator that I have posted photo's of previously. The photo's I have attached are of the contractor (the only thing we don't do), and the product applied onto the trash blanket it is applied under positive pressure.

Not a real good start!!!!

Well it has been a while since my last post mainly because we have had further rain events that have delayed harvest once again. It look's like we are moving into a more El nino weather pattern (man I hope so) the crop is good the price is good all we need to do is get the crop harvested, surely we can catch a break ? Anyway whilst the ground has been so saturated I with my son Riley have rebuilt the transaxle in my offroad race car, and it is now a go'er,it is powered by a twin turbo Subaru with 205kw, I had forgotten how much of an adrenalin rush this thing is. Hopefully we will be starting harvest again late this week so we can get the crop off in a reasonable time frame so as we can have some reasonable ratoon cane for next year.

Stinking Rain

Spoke to soon rain came again last Friday night, not a lot but enough to stop the harvest it is still overcast and misting rain. We have applied zinc to the paddock that we have yet to plant, we used water soluble zinc through the new GPS controlled spray unit that my brother set-up earlier this year. It is pretty cool stuff and the accuracy and ease of use was unbelievable, it logs where it has been sprayed and will not spray over a logged area, so you turn the unit on and just engage the GPS on the swath, and away you go.The photo of the screen shows litres per hectare being sprayed, litres remaining in the tank, what nozzles are on or off.

Finally started the crush.

Well we had more wet weather putting the harvest off until yesterday, about 11 days later than anticipated. It provided me with an opportunity to go and visit Ray Vella (aka the Marlborough Man) my son Riley and I spent a couple of days doing some hunting and fishing with Ray and I gota say that I was impressed with there property, and it is a credit to Ray and his wife. Hopefully the rain will stay away and we can finish our paddock in preparation for planting cane when the weather warms up, we have applied gypsum and will apply zinc shortly with our sprayer. I thought I would post some photo's of what will be my office for a fair bit of the next five months. This is us harvesting dual rows 800mm apart on 2m wheel centres.

Harvest not far away.

Well it is only a couple of weeks until the 2012 harvest starts, we have just had 40mm of rain and it has been followed up by some cold weather it was 6 degrees Celsius this morning, looks like winter has arrived. The cane harvester is finished and ready to go, just a few little maintenance jobs to do on the transporters, it looks to be a good crop this year and "touch wood" there is still a good sugar price on the horizon. We have not been able to plant cane yet as the rain has held everything up probably not a bad thing considering the temperature has plummeted.Haven't really got any more machinery to show you guys I have pretty much shared all the stuff we have on the go.So this time I will put on a couple of photo's of some of the feral pigs that run a muck in our sugar cane crops, it"s not what they eat that is the problem it is what they destroy and root up that causes the biggest issue.

Wow it's been a week.

Man time flies , I have almost got the caneharvester back in one piece, it's good to see less parts on the shed floor I can tell you. It was interesting to me when I was on my travels that us Australians were seen as a pretty inovative bunch of farmers, and I suppose that we have to be given our circumstances regarding government policy, climatic conditions, and relying on exporting so much of what we produce. The other thing that was glaringly obvious was even though not perfect, our research and development organisation are world class, and some of the technology that I have shared on this blog is a direct result from this industry wide investment. I will attach a couple of photo's of our shielded spray/liquid fertiliser applicator.This is new technology developed by Trimble that allows us to control three different sections all at different rates at the same time. We use roundup under the shields in the interspace, a herbicide over the rows, and the third tank we use liquid fertiliser to split applications, this is all done throught the main screen in the tractor, and my brother has mounted all of the electronic control gear with the tractor so we can use different implements with the one set of controllers/manifolds.

Levelling again.

The ground has finally dried out enough to start levelling again , and ther is still a fair bit of dirt to shift. As soon as the levelling is done we will be applying gypsum via a variable rate controlled spreader, that will use a prescription that we have made using data from an (Electromagnetism Map) or em map and data from our gis marked soil samples.This technology allows us to pin point soil ameliorant to where it is needed most and to apply less to the soils that are in better shape, this adds up to quite significant cost reductions.Electronic data management is an emerging technology and we see it as a tool to fine tune our farming management, we use "Yeild Monitoring" on our sugarcane harvester, E,M maps, GIS soil samples, we use this data to build layers of information about paddocks over time so we can see trends, and monitor our management practices. This data collection program also lets us track all costs (tractors, harvesting, hauling, fertiliser, chemical, labor) as well as a complete record of what was done on farm from day to day, ie; chemical application , fertiliser application,water application etc, we have found this type of information invaluable in managing our farm finances, as my Dad always says " If you don't know where you spend money you can't workout where to save it!" here is a digital image from our E M map, and the cover of the Ontario grain Farmer Magazine.