BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR SUGARCANE PRODUCTION IN THE INGHAM LINE AREA OF THE HERBERT RIVER DISTRICT

THE INGHAM Line area is a relatively narrow strip of cane land along either side of the main highway between Helen’s Hill and Rollingstone and makes up the southern part of the Herbert River sugarcane area. The area has a drier climate than the rest of the Herbert district and is characterised by fragile, relatively infertile duplex soils. Consequently, sugarcane farming in this area is faced with different challenges compared with other parts of the district. Pace Farming owns two productive sugarcane farms in this area together with a pineapple farm at Rollingstone. They have successfully developed and adopted a range of farm management practices aimed at enhancing productivity and profitability and optimising financial and environmental sustainability. These best management practices are likely to be applicable to the entire Ingham Line area. This paper outlines the environment of the Ingham Line area and describes the management practices that Pace Farming has used to improve productivity, reduce costs and minimise environmental impacts. Management practices such as farm layout, reduced tillage, strategic irrigation, choice of varieties, regular fallowing, disease and pest control, nutrient management, good timing of operations and detailed record keeping are central to their success and are described in the paper. The paper also focuses on some of the opportunities for improving productivity in the Ingham Line area, particularly that of starting the harvesting season early. Plans are underway to extend the crushing season in the Herbert from 22 weeks to up to 26 weeks and much of the early harvested cane is likely to be sourced from the Ingham Line area. The benefits of early harvest for this area are discussed together with some of the crop management practices that need to be employed to optimise early CCS and sugar yields.