Growing Your Productivity Strategies Essential

By Kevin Borg, Chairman, CANEGROWERS Mackay
The sugar price remains strong, and is expected to do so as the market for sugar continues to outstrip supply.
Last year saw some real sugar rush price peaks, but it has softened into what is still a solid price moving around the $600AUD/tonne.
For growers, building productivity is critical to making the most of strong prices, and a counterweight to meeting input costs like fuel and fertiliser. Increased productivity equates to improved profitability
There are lots of strategies, but one that is showing good benefit is using clean seed. “Clean seed” is a term to describe a process of obtaining disease-free planting material. Productivity Services will source propagation material from SRA varieties, and subject that to heat and cold treatment to ensure it is free of disease, before planting out into specialist plots. As it moves through its growth cycle, the plants are rigorously monitored and tested for disease before distribution to growers for planting.
Importantly, to retain the benefit of the clean seed program, growers need to collect disease-free planting material from the distribution plots every year.
Clean seed material can be secured in whole stick, billet or tissue culture form, and is widely regarded by agronomy and research organisations as the cornerstone of productivity. It makes sense. Healthy propagation material from the outset will produce stronger, more vigorously growing plants. Clean seed propagation in tandem with raising soil health is a good recipe for successfully increasing productivity. This all translates into more tonnes of cane. A healthy, flourishing crop that doesn’t need treatments for disease is fundamental for good productivity and good environmental outcomes.
Investing in practices that build productivity is one way to benefit from strong sugar prices, but so is increasing your farming area.
Given high land costs, many growers are using leasing as a way of extending their land under cane. For younger growers, it can offer an entry point to get into the industry.
Leasing is also a good solution for elderly farmers who wish to scale back their own production, but still retain their farm and home, and to continue to derive a form of income from that land.
To that end, CANEGROWERS enterers a leasing service, with a document developed by our state legal adviser that enables members to enter a lease arrangement for cane production land. The administrative service is provided free of charge to CANEGROWERS members.
The industry is increasingly challenged by loss of land under cane for a variety of reasons, but it is essential for our mills to maintain viability through good cane supply. Leasing is a way that growers can affordably extend their agribusiness operations and productivity, and by which those who have land but do not wish to work it, can enjoy a mutual benefit and increase their profitability.

A Clean Seed plot in the Plane Creek area. “Clean Seed” is a cornerstone of productivity and reducing plant disease risk.  Photo source: PCPSL

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