ON THE LAND

BURDEKIN GROWERS DELVE DEEP INTO THE SCIENCE OF SOIL

NQ Dry Tropics

SOIL guru David Hardwick concluded a three-part course in Soil Health recently with a workshop enthusiastically received by a tight-knit group of sugar cane growers.

Hosted by Glenn and Rhonda Pirrone on their Ayr farm, the third workshop in the series concentrated on making sense of soil analyses and getting value out of them.

The workshop was organised by NQ Dry Tropics and funded through the Queensland Government Reef Water Quality Program as part of the Enhanced Extension Coordination in GBR project.

Assisted by Soil, Land, Food Extension Officer Simon Mattsson, they explained how nutrients cycled through the soil to become available for plants to consume and grow and eventually return to the earth when the plant died, culminating in an explanation of the nitrogen cycle.

Multi-species covercropping pioneered by Mr Mattsson in Australia was

Weekly production figures

Burdekin region mills Week 2, ending 19 June 2021

Cane crushed This week Season to date Invicta 144,457 228,825 Pioneer Kalamia 63,402 112,460 71,739 108,645 Inkerman 36,589 75,334

Burdekin 316,186 525,264

The Soil Health Check Workshop conducted at Glenn and Rhonda Pirrone’s Ayr farm. Pictured are (from left): NQ Dry Tropics Soil Conservation Officer Bernie Claussen, grower Angelo Spina, Matt and Chris Horsfall, hosts Glenn and Rhonda Pirrone, growers Denis Pozzebon and Heath Salter and NQ Dry Tropics Project Officer Michael Hobbs with Soil, Land, Food representatives Simon Mattsson (left) and David Hardwick kneeling

CCS

Invicta Pioneer Kalamia 13.30 13.20 12.78

13.13 13.06 12.86 Inkerman 12.35 12.51

Burdekin 13.05 12.97

Weekly variety performance for region

Variety % CCS Variety % CCS

Q240 34 13.08 Q208 5 12.15

KQ228 33 13.09

Q183 21 13.35

Q232 5 12.90

Comments:

Throughput for the Burdekin mills in week two of the season was just over 316,000 tonnes. This was above budget despite the impact of wet weather on cane supply.

Inkerman Mill experienced the greatest impact, with some areas receiving more than 60mm of rain for the week. The mill ran out of cane on Thursday morning and did not resume crushing operations until Sunday night.

The north bank mills experienced some cane supply shortfalls, but much lower rainfall totals meant harvesters were able to get back into paddocks sooner.

Average weekly CCS was 13.05. This was above budget and a good outcome given the wet conditions experienced across the region.

The highest CCS sample was 16.2 from a rake of Q240 Plant cane in the Invicta Mill area.

Wilmar employees delivered the cane train safety message for the first time at the new Queensland Country Bank Stadium on Friday night, with community engagement activities held before and during the Cowboys versus Sharks game. Engagement was good and feedback was positive.

also a focus of the workshop.

The group inspected a fallow paddock on the Pirrones’ farm, noting the clearly evident soil benefits left by a short-term mixed species cover crop.

The group discussed minimum-tillage strategies to prepare the paddock for planting, including using a mixture of molasses and prilled urea to accelerate the biological activity in the soil that would break down the remaining mulch.

Bacteria helps break down the biomass meaning farmers have to use less tillage.

Mr and Mrs Pirrone said the workshops had been invaluable.

“It’s new knowledge, and it’s so good for us to be able to have somebody like David Hardwick come and walk through our paddock, dig up the soil and give us advice,” Mrs Pirrone said.

“As an ecologist, we learnt more from him than at any other agronomy meeting I have attended.”

She said repeat visits for similar workshops would have a knock-on effect on the environment and for the whole community.

CONNECT NOW:

Visit the NQ Dry Tropics website at www.nqdrytropics. com.au for more details.

NQ Dry Tropics Project Officer Michael Hobbs (right) with Angelo and Deanne Spina

Lower Burdekin growers Denis Pozzebon (left) and Heath Salter

John Tait Cane Supply Manager Burdekin Region

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LACK OF BUDGET FOCUS ON AGRICULTURE ‘DISAPPOINTING’ SAYS CANEGROWERS CHAIR

CANEGROWERS Burdekin Chair, Phil Marano at his Home Hill property

Daniel Shirkie

SUGAR cane growers in the Burdekin have been left feeling out in the cold after the Queensland State Government handed down their budget recently.

CANEGROWERS Burdekin Chair Phil Marano says the industry’s lack of policy or funding is ‘underwhelming’.

“Locally, for the Burdekin and growers, it’s very underwhelming,” Mr Marano said.

“There’s nothing really flash there for agriculture in general, let alone cane growers.

“There’s a bit of money for rising groundwater, which is good; we need some research into that and ways to tackle that problem.”

Although he singled out the billions devoted to renewable energy as a ‘bright spot’ for cane growers, Mr Marano still has many concerns about the lack of clear commitment to policies that benefit the regions.

“One bright side might be the billions of dollars for renewables and hydrogen, that’s not focused on the cane industry, but we definitely think we can benefit them in that.” Mr Marano said.

“The cane crop we’ve got here is probably one of the best crops for renewable energy.”

They can produce ethanol and hydrogen in abundance via the processing of cane crops. Still, Mr Marano says a shift of any scale to renewable energy production would require significant investment before growers would commit.

“We have to wait and see how serious the government is about renewables because it’s going to take a lot of money to set up a new business making hydrogen, which is something we can do,” Mr Marano said.

“I was at an infrastructure workshop a few weeks ago in Townsville, and we were discussing the Queensland Government and their plan for carbon neutral by 2050.

“I kept saying, ‘that’s a good thing for them to say, but where’s the policy to back that?’ All we have here is an aspiration; if they are serious,

Pioneer Cane Growers donate $5,000 to community support program

Daniel Shirkie

THE Community Response to Eliminating Suicide (CORES) program, has had their hard work recognised and benefitted to the tune of $5,000 thanks to a donation from the Pioneer Cane Growers Organisation.

Pioneer Cane Growers Chairman Michael Roncato presented CORES coordinator Ross Romeo with a cheque for the amount recently, in recognition of the work the program does in assisting rural communities in battling suicide.

Suicide rates in rural and remote regional communities are often much higher than those in major cities, according to research conducted by the The Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health.

In Queensland alone, farmers are twice as likely than the general population to take their own lives, while non-farmers in extremely remote areas are five times as likely.

In the Burdekin, coordinator Ross Romeo leads the CORES team in addressing the scourge, with participants being educated on best practices on how to intervene and when to be proactive in preventing someone from taking their own life or engaging in selfharm.

“We’re very grateful for the support they’ve given us for many years now,” Mr Romeo said of the donation.

“It shows that we’re on the right track and that we’re making a difference.

“It helps make the growers a bit more comfortable seeing us working with the group and it makes them more comfortable seeking help when they need it.”

Mr Romeo said the money will go back into running training sessions and providing other resources to the local community.

The program also provides resources on where to go if in need of help, and how to recognise warning signs of when someone is at risk.

The PCGO’s donation is not the first donation of it’s kind to the organisation, given in recognition of the ‘significance’ of programs such as the one run by Mr Romeo and with the aim to helping the team at CORES provide better services to the community in the area of if they want to build a new industry, you need to start that planning now to be ready and to meet those targets in thirty years.”

According to Marano, at the moment, growers in the Burdekin are exploring the idea of using rejected cane stalks for the production of clean energy, but any long-term decisions will only come after a clear policy commitment from the government.

“No one’s suggesting we switch away from sugar, but there’s plenty of room for expansion to grow more cane or make a little bit less sugar and create more renewables,” Marano said.

Michael Roncato and Ross Romeo

suicide prevention.

CORES will next host a free, one-day training course on Friday, July 30 at the Burdekin PCYC from 8.30am to 3.30pm.

Anyone who has further inquiries or would like to be a part of the program can contact co-ordinator Ross Romeo on 0427 455 313.

QSL Market Update

current as of 23 June 2021

Sugar

• Sugar prices turned a corner and systematically moved south over the course of last week, spurred by the results of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. On the Monday the July ICE 11 contract peaked on open at 17.50 USc/lb before trading lower every day of the week until a low of 16.32 USc/lb on Friday. The contract, with only 7 more trading sessions until expiry, closed the week down 6.33% at 16.43 USc/lb. • Commodities across the board took some heavy blows as a result of the hawkish US Federal Open Market

Committee FOMC meeting. The Fed altered its forecast to now anticipate two interest rate hikes in 2023, compared to its prediction of none back at its March meeting.

Speculators, who hold large net-long positions in several commodities, have liquidated a portion of their position by removing their investments from commodities and likely shifting them into US Dollar treasury bonds in an attempt to chase higher returns. • The latest Commitment of Traders (CoT) data reported a sharp liquidation of the net-long position as of 15 June.

The net speculator position was reduced by 17,000 lots, down to 220,000 lots net long. • With the expiry of the Jul21 position only a week away, the spread between the Jul21 and Oct21 position has begun to weaken day by day (i.e. the Oct21 position is moving higher above the Jul21 position). This indicates commercial rolling of long positions from July to October due to a lack of interest in taking delivery of sugar to the tape at expiry.

2021-SEASON HISTORICAL ICE 11 CHART

This is a whole-of-season ICE 11 price chart for the 2021 Season, based on the current 1:2:2:1 pricing ratio applicable to QSL Target Price Contract growers. Source: Bloomberg

Currency

• The Australian Dollar (AUD) also sustained heavy losses last week as the US Dollar found strong support from the

FOMC interest rate forecasts. The AUD fell from its high of 77.26 US cents on Monday down to its low of 74.76 US cents on Friday. • FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged the substantial increase in inflation but repeated his position, stating the Fed are not phased and believe it is transitory only. Powell also announced there would be no change to the quantitative easing program and that they are taking a “meeting by meeting” approach to assessing the progress. • Domestically, unemployment data published on

Thursday gave the AUD a small but brief recovery, bouncing back up above 77 US cents. Full-time jobs were reported to be up by 97,500 and part-time up 17,700, with the unemployment rate now sitting at 5.1%, much lower than the expected 5.5%.

To read our full commentary in the QSL Market Update, please visit www.qsl.com.au or contact the Burdekin QSL team: Russell Campbell, Grower Relationship Manager 0408 248 385 Kristen Paterson, Grower Relationship Officer 0438 470 235 Rebecca Love, Grower Relationship Officer 0429 054 330

This report contains information of a general or summary nature. While all care is taken in the preparation of this report, the reliability, accuracy or completeness of the information provided in the document is not guaranteed. The update on marketing and pricing activity does not constitute financial, investment advice. You should seek your own financial advice. Nothing contained in this report should be relied upon as a representation as to future matters. Information about past performance is not an indication of future performance. QSL does not accept any responsibility to any person for the decisions and actions taken by that person with respect to any of the information contained in this report.