RESEARCHING AND IMPLEMENTING FARMING SYSTEMS IN THE NSW SUGAR INDUSTRY

THE New South Wales Sugar Milling Cooperative's (NSWSMC) move to whole cane harvesting for cogeneration will increase in-field haulout traffic by 30% with the potential for yield decline due to increased soil compaction. Trials were established in all three mill areas of NSW comparing various controlled traffic (1.8 m) row spacing/planting configurations with the conventional 1.5 m configuration. Results obtained for both one- and two-year crops are reported. The trial results have indicated the potential for small yield increases and demonstrated that adoption of controlled traffic cropping systems will not result in loss of productivity. These results have given growers confidence that they can adopt a controlled traffic farming system without productivity losses. Although there were generally no major yield differences between the three controlled traffic systems evaluated, it is considered that the dual row configuration is the best option for NSW given the slower canopy closure in the other 1.8 m configurations. In addition, it is possible to zero till dual rows with double disc planting technology but this option is not possible for a wide row configuration. Harvester operator visibility when cutting large two-year old crops green is severely limited due to the increased bulk of cane material so GPS guidance systems (! 2 cm) were evaluated in these trials. As a result of these trials the NSW industry has established an RTK GPS base station network, with coverage of all three mill areas. The entire harvesting fleet in Broadwater and Condong have been set up with GPS guidance in readiness for whole-of-crop harvesting, with a number of units being set up on growers' tractors. Adoption of controlled traffic farming has been increasing annually since trial work began in NSW 2003. This has been a result of a broad scale extension program advocating the results of the farming systems work along with innovative growers making a successful transition to controlled traffic farming.