IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY : A FARMERS PERSPECTIVE

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IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY A FARMERS PERSPECTIVE
SUGARMaintaining Competitiveness

• ALAN MUNRO Sugar Producer

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Our Farm

• Clarence River Floodplain, NSW
• Family partnership
• 148 ha cane farm
• 12,000 tonnes annually
• Small beef cattle operation
• Manage a further 95 ha cane land

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Improving Productivity

• Areas requiring attention remain unchanged
• Significant change in techniques used
• 1970s to early 1980s - focus on production
• 2007 - focus on profitability, people and
  environment
• Balance is easy if the operation is profitable

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Improving Productivity Our options

• Increase production from existing
• caneland
• Expand production area
• Effective until late 1990s
• Land prices vs farming returns - not in sync
• Competitive advantage decreased
• Efficient production no longer guarantees a good
  income

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Improving Productivity Our options
Sugar Cane Skirmish ?
Munros Magic Mulch ?
Murky Fish Farm ?

• Introduce other enterprises
• Need demand driven production
• Supplying higher value markets
• Value add to existing enterprises
• Introduce other enterprises
• Easy to say, difficult to implement

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Factors Affecting Productivity

• Low cost management practices
• Drainage
• Field preparation
• Variety selection
• Weed control
• Fertilizer strategies
• Harvesting
• Management and timeliness
• Benchmarking study
• Need to increase CCS

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Factors Affecting Productivity

• Sugarcane smut disease
• Harvesting
• Harvesting co-operatives
• Fixed versus differential rates
• Opportunities to reduce losses
• Loss of input into harvester design
• Harvester and in-field transport modification for
  co-generation

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A New Farming System

• Conventional system
• 1.5m row spacing
• Flat planted and cultivated plant cane phase
• Mix of ratoon practices
• Require a more sustainable farming system (SYDJV,
  Co-generation)
• Controlled traffic
• 1.8m spacing - dual rows
• GPS/autosteer in 2006
• Visibility when whole crop harvesting
• Outcome - reduced compaction

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A New Farming System

• Direct drill
• Double-disc opener cane planter
• Direct drill cane into soybean stubble
• Zero tillage ratoons
• Maintains improved soil structure
• Opportunity for better weed control

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A New Farming System

• Crop rotation incorporating legumes

• Proven benefits
• Implications for lost cane production

• Our economic analysis shows we
• need

• Higher yields in next cane cycle
• Reduction in tillage operations
• return from the grain crop
• Reduced N input for cane after soybean

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A New Farming System

• Raised beds
• Drainage needed on alluvial floodplains of NSW
• Small beds improve drainage in the lower country
• Improved timeliness of operations
• Improved yields
• Force controlled traffic on haul-out operators

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Adoption

• Aim for 50 of NSW cane area to be under the
  system
• by 2010
• Resistance to change

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Adoption

• Its not easy!
• Senior partner first day of zero till cane
  plantingThats the roughest days work Ive
  done since I started farming
• On other daysThats a big enough trial, lets
  just hoe the rest of the paddock and plant it
  like we used to

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Adoption

• Focus on the benefits
• System packaging desirable
• Easy decisions in the past
• Increasingly complex today
• Decision making tools available

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Where to now?

• Productive low cost sustainable cane growing
  system
• Well positioned for co-generation
• Flexibility in the system
• Past productivity gains from improved management
• Future productivity gains from left field