THIS PAPER describes the farming system that has been adopted by G.S. and
K.J. Henry in the Murray Upper area near Tully. It incorporates 1.8 m wide
rows, dual row planting, controlled traffic using GPS and reduced tillage. As the
farm has only been under cane for 10 years, the fallow has been used for farm
development. However, the plan aims for a legume fallow to be part of the longterm
system. This is the 'his' part of the story. This paper outlines the
anticipated economic returns from the new farming system based largely on
actual costs, our reasons for its adoption and the thinking pathways that we took
to make the change. Based on actual yields and CCS plus anticipated yield
impacts, the change is a profitable one in the short term and will be even more so
in the long term. In changing to a new farming system, managing the change is
just as important and is 'her' part of the story. Consequently, one of their key
objectives was to make the change, as near as possible, cost neutral, so tight
financial management control was used to make sure that was achieved.
Rationalisation of capital inputs was part of this change.