THE fate of Herbert River cane growers is in the lap of weather gods as they race against time to get their product to the mills.
Herbert River Canegrowers Chair Michael Pisano said unseasonable rain in the past month had hampered efforts of growers who were working against time to harvest this years crop.
The region’s growers were hoping for one of their most profitable seasons in recent years, until wet weather lashed the region from late October.
“We’ve had so much in the last month, it was unseasonable and now the fields are really wet so any little bit really contributes,” Mr Pisano said.
He said this season had been shaping up to be one of the best in reason years, with the region producing five million tonne if they could pick up all of the cane.
“We’ve had a series of years with orange rust, smut, cyclones, floods and also yellow canopy which had impacted in terms of productivity,” he said.
“We have introduced varieties with more resistance, though yellow canopy is still a problem, but now its the weather.
“We had a good run until about a month ago then we had up to 300mm in certain places, anywhere between 200mm-300mm it’s keeping it wet.”
Mr Pisano said they needed to crush about 200,000 tonnes a day to get through it all before mid-December but any wet day would delay progress.
Bureau of Meteorology figures for October show Hawkins Creek received 350mm in that month, Poverty hill 337mm and Ingham 217mm. The highest falls for November so far as of Monday were at Bambaroo with 113mm.
A BOM spokeswoman said showers were forecast for the district for the remainder of the week.
Mr Pisano said there were three milling trains servicing the Herbert River district, which fully loaded could take between 30,000 to 32,000 tonnes a day to the Macknade and Victoria Mills.
A daily output of about 8,000 tonnes is needed to keep one milling train operating in the district.
Mr Pisano said the crush usually started in mid June, with a finish date of mid to late November.
He said if the weather held for the rest of this week, growers would hope to finish the crush by December 16.
But contingency plans are in place to ensure all of the cane is picked up, with growers applying to the Department of Transport and Main Roads for licenses to operate heavy machinery during the traditional Christmas shut-down.
Ingham grower Paul Marbelli said growers were getting concerned.
“It started out good, we’ve got to a stage now we’ve got what’s left in the paddock is close to 800,000 tonne and guys are starting to get desperate wondering if they’re going to get it off,” Mr Marbelli said.
Wilmar Sugar General Manager Cane Supply and Transport Paul Giordani said as of 8am Monday, Herbert mills had processed about 87 per cent of the district’s 4.98 million tonne crop and were expected to finish crushing on December 13.
He said Wilmar had finished crushing at its two Mackay region mills, with Proserpine Mill crushing out on November 9 with a season total of 1.43 million tonnes of cane.
Plane Creek Mill at Sarina crushed out on November 16 with a season total of 1.17 million tonnes of cane.
He said at of 8am Monday, the Burdekin mills had crushed about 92 per cent of the district’s 8.13 million tonne crop with the first of the four Burdekin mills expected to finish next Wednesday, November, 29 and the last on December 5.
