It's been a bit hectic around hear lately, machinery preparation for the upcoming crush is almost done, the crush will commence on the 10th of June. In the middle of this we have planted cane, this was an interesting time, if you have seen my blogs you will know that we plant into a minimum till permanent bed, and will also have seen that we also had cyclone that dumped some rain. What is interesting is that we have neighbours that are full on diesel burners (full tillage)and they furiously run up and down trying to get their ground to dry out and get a good enough tilth to plant. Where on the other hand we have one pass with a coulter /ripper which is low horsepower and low fuel consumption and less labour, then we plant with a double disc planter. I have taken some photo's of the "traditional" system and our "min till" controlled traffic system and the soil condition, the two fields are separated by about 50 meters, same soil, the only difference is how the fields are managed, our field has had no heavy cultivation for 8 years, the other one every year and no matched rows to wheel spacings. Old mate told me he burnt 1000 litres of fuel to prepare for planting, I lost count of how many tillage operations they did, but we had finished planting when they had finally finished their tillage.You be the judge!!Had a visit from the guys from Queensland University the other day to take soil samples from where the soy was in the sugar cane crop, they also took soil from the neighbours "traditional" farming practices and from the natural bush land over the fence, it will be interesting to see what little boogers they find living in the different soils.On the "big picture" scale we have had our millers wanting to pull out of our industry run marketing system,(next will be the terminals and port infrastructure) they say that it will be for my benefit, Yeah I am sure that this multi national company really has my best interest at heart,just another challenge to being a farmer these days, lets hope as an Industry we can work together on this most important development so our lively hoods don't get eroded for the benefit of the all mighty dollar.
