I saw a post on Facebook the other day, it had a picture of farm land, the caption read "Men in Denim (Jackie How blue singlets and Stubbies, here in Australia) built this Land, and Men in Suits are ruining it". I got to say that summed up they I am feeling about the Australian Sugarcane Industry at the moment, we have now had all three major Sugar milling companies, one Singaporean, one Chinese, and the other Thai, all pull out of the Industry run marketing and distribution company. I wish I could say I was surprised ,however I saw this same corporate strategy on my Nuffield Scholarship, people here in this Industry have blinders on, they have continually said "Oh no this can't happen" "We will fight it Blah Blah Blah".So it is true "Men in Suits" sitting in offices around the globe are determining how the sugar cane industry will look in the future. Meanwhile men like me and you who are farmers built this industry,what to do? who to talk to? Well this is how I contribute, I have had over 10,200 page views, I don't know who you are,but I hope you read my thoughts and you gain some insight into the issues modern Sugarcane farmers are dealing with.My only goal is to shed some light and inform people of the possibilities that this crop can deliver for a sustainable future in "food ,fibre, and energy production", because I believe you guys are the ones that can make the difference. Politicians only re-act to public pressure,so my reckoning is convince enough of you guys and things will start to happen (no pressure).
Anyway back to what I can have some input into our Harvesting and Farming business, we have installed a new chopper drum design into our harvester the harvest our dual row,it has the potential to produce a better cutting action therefore reducing juice loss at harvest. As with all things new I have experienced a few dramas,basically I don't have enough hydraulic power to power the new cutting action, but like most things it can be overcome and I have ordered some different hydraulic motors with more torque, should solve the problem.
I have had numerous visits from farmers,three this week in fact, I must say how honoured I feel that people think enough of what we are doing to travel to come speak with us,I have said to our new research body on numerous occaisions and to numerous people in "leadership" roles how important credibility is to farmers,and how farmers will always learn from other farmers. However they do not take notice, more "Men in Suits".
I have put up pictures of the old chopper drums ,and the other photos of the new chopper system.
