Membership Momentum And Mill Matters

Sonia Ball, QCAR Central District Manager

With our successful roadshows now behind us, the QCAR Central District Committee and I are returning our focus to the season ahead.

Meetings in Mackay, Proserpine and Plane Creek were informative, with the outcome of new memberships and a new Central District committee member, Bryce Jackson, a Carmila cane farmer in the Plane Creek district.

The QCAR District Committee voting period has also now ended in the Burdekin and Herbert River regions, with the Returning Officer now left with the task of auditing and confirming the successful nominees. We hope to announce these to you soon.

Retiring QCAR CEO Stephen Ryan attended his final roadshows in the Central District, followed by three events in Far North Queensland at Innisfail, Babinda and Walkamin.

Stephen has taken up the offer of a new position in the sugarcane industry in his own home state of New South Wales, and by the time you read this, he will have ended his tenure as CEO at QCAR.

While we are sorry for our loss, QCAR is also happy to congratulate Stephen as he steps into this new role that is closer to his family and his own home cane farm.

The QCAR team would like to thank Stephen for his contributions to QCAR and the broader industry over the past year, and we wish him all the best in his new position.

Back on home soil, Wilmar Proserpine and Plane Creek have released their estimates for 2025, with just 20,000 tonnes separating them at 1.58M and 1.6M respectively.

QCAR is currently waiting on pre-start meetings with all three regional mills in the Central District to discuss estimates, start dates, standover strategies and the big million-dollar query – mill maintenance progression and expectations.

I will be heading down to the Australian Society of Sugarcane Technologists (ASSCT) conference with my counterpart from the Herbert River, District Manager Lawrence Di Bella, this week, and will be back in Mackay by the time you read this.

I’ll be helping man the QCAR, AgEtal and AgForce stall where the new RSD testing kit will be on display and demonstrated. It’s another opportunity to fly the flag for QCAR, industry and support the important work of the ASSCT, which is a leading technical society providing a forum for scientists, engineers, chemists, institutions, farmers, companies and individuals interested in sugarcane technology advances and innovation – and it’s all about sugarcane.

QCAR in all Wilmar regions is looking forward to meeting with the respective representatives of each of the mills to progress and approve proposed changes to the CAP and respective District Schedules.

In the meantime, we are looking forward to the regional shows that are coming up in the Central District at Proserpine, Mackay, Finch Hatton and Sarina.

If you have any questions about QCAR or you would like to have an on-farm meeting or in our Mackay office at R&T Pumps, 8 Tennyson Street, pick up the phone, we’d love to hear from you. P: 0467 573 321.

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The QCAR Central District Committee at the QCWA Hall at Koumala before the final QCAR Central District Roadshow, from left, District Manager Sonia Ball, new committee member Bryce Jackson, committee member Craig Keating, Deputy Chairman Steve Fordyce and Chairman Steve McKeering.

At the CD Proserpine Roadshow at the Metropole Hotel are Ross and Jenny Rule.

At the Mackay CD event are QCAR Chairman Christian Lago and QCS’s Deborah Wright.

James Atkinson chats with CD Committee Chairman Steve McKeering and Steve Hinschen at the Metropole Hotel.

Herbert District administration officer Anna Di Bella, Central District Manager Sonia Ball, QCAR Chairman Christian Lago and former QCAR CEO Stephen Ryan at the Mackay office at R&T Pumps, Tennyson Street.

Herbert District Manager Lawrence Di Bella, who spoke about the new RSD testing kit to growers at the roadshow events, with Paul Atkinson and Alan Hoffman.

Phillip Mifsud and Mark Bugeja at the Mackay event at the Shamrock Hotel.

Central District Committee Chairman Steve McKeering, QCS’s Arthur Douglas, Tony Bugeja and Michael Dunn at Mackay’s Shamrock Hotel.

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