Worker safety heads the agenda at the Australian Sugar Milling Council’s biennial safety conference, starting in Mackay today.
ASMC has set the theme for this year’s conference as Living and Leading Safety – It Starts with You!
The organisation represents 16 sugar mills in Queensland and NSW that collectively account for around 90 per cent of Australia’s raw sugar production.
More than 100 delegates from mills and associated sugar industry organisations will attend the two-day event.
ASMC chair John Pratt said the title emphasised that safety in sugar workplaces was a shared responsibility.
“Sugar mills are dynamic and complex environments but if everyone takes personal responsibility for their safety behaviour, whether it be individually or as part of a team, we’re confident we can deliver wider industry results second to none,” Mr Pratt said.
“While our reported data demonstrate that sugar industry safety performance is improving, we still lag other industry sectors.”
The conference features leading psychotherapists Jackie Furey.
“Jackie’s keynote address on the second morning, ‘A Check-Up from the Neck Up!’ will relate the importance of healthy minds to healthy workplaces, while our day one line-up also includes trauma counsellor, Paul Spinks, and emergency decision making expert Dirk Maclean,” Mr Pratt said.
ASMC chief executive David Pietsch said the conference provided the first opportunity since 2018 for sugar industry participants to network with their industry peers and share safety innovations due to the cancellation of last year’s conference caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The conference also allows ASMC to outline its key areas of focus including an ambitious trade and market access agenda and a vision for the revitalisation of the industry,” Mr Pietsch said.
Despite challenging weather conditions in 2020, Queensland’s sugarcane crop was up almost 1 million tonnes over the 2019 season with 29.33mt crushed by Queensland’s mills.
ASMC is seeking to grow sugar industry revenues from $2 billion to $3 billion by 2030.
A Bundaberg company says it has manufactured the world’s first sugarcane harvester powered by a Stage 5 diesel engine and hopes to develop an export market for them in Japan.
Canetec has been developing the machine for the past 12 months in response to requests from Japan for a small harvester suited to its small fields and environmental and carbon emission standards.https://46dd41f4b140105e9870b251e1390304.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
Its chief executive officer Glenn Soper said the company had decided to take up the challenge and the first YT4000-F model harvester is now undergoing field trials in advance of its scheduled arrival in Japan on April 15.
“Their current small machine harvesters are very basic. They have open cabs and little to none of the technical capabilities of harvesters that we see in Australia,” Mr Soper said.
“Our (Japanese) customers were requesting a new (small) model that would fit with all their environmental parameters such as having a Stage 5 engine and being under 128 horsepower (95.44 kilowatts).
FIELD TESTING: The Canetec YT4000-F model harvester equipped with a Tier 5 engine being tested under field conditions last week.
“The YT4000-F is 121 horsepower (90.2kW) so we have been able to deliver that as well and provide a huge upgrade in driver comfort, harvesting efficiency and the machine’s technical capabilities.”
Canetec is importing 4.5-litre QSB Tier 5 Cummins engines from the United States to power the machines which are capable of harvesting around 33 tonnes an hour.
Australia hasn’t yet regulated emissions from non-road engines but a number of overseas countries have moved to Stage 4 and are planning to go to Stage 5.
Project engineer Peter Lambrides said it had taken 12 months to build the new model due to worldwide shortages of materials because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The cabin and track system are from Europe and the engine came from the US but the rest of the machine has been built locally,” he said.
“All the sheet metal has been locally welded and put together and all the gearboxes are made here In Bundaberg.”
Canetec has been building large- and medium-sized harvesters in Bundaberg for more than a decade and exports a range of harvester models locally and to Japan and the Asia Pacific.
Fittingly, the company operates out of the old factory site of Austoft once owned by the Toft brothers who developed Australia’s first sugar cane harvester in the early 1940s.
Case IH bought their company in 1996 and in 2004 Austoft production moved from Bundaberg to global sugar powerhouse, Brazil.
Mr Soper said a group of locals who included Bundeberg legend Cliff Fleming, co-founder and owner of Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, decided to buy the site to keep manufacturing jobs in the south-east Queensland coastal town.
The company now shares the site with waste-collection truck maker Superior Pak which provides work for Cantec staff who also do other manufacturing and fabricating jobs for local customers.
The company now produces about one cane harvester a month but Mr Soper hoped the Japanese market for the small harvesters could reach 20 units a year.
“We think it’s going to be a volume machine,” he said.
Cane growers and service providers are being urged to be on the lookout for signs of fall armyworm, following the first confirmed report of the pest in sugarcane.
Identified in a crop on the Atherton Tablelands late last month, the occurrence is thought to be as a result of a heavily-infested maize crop that bordered the cane.
Vigilance is key to managing the threat and responding appropriately, with growers and service providers encouraged to be on the lookout, particularly in blocks near corn/maize or other affected crops.
Early detection coupled with accurate diagnosis will assist with effective pest management decisions for affected crops.
Agrisciences Queensland (DAF) is the main point of contact for identification of potential fall armyworm and they can be contacted on 13 25 23.
The pest is now considered established in Australia, following detection at several sites including the NT, WA, New South Wales and recently in Victoria.
The fall armyworm page on the Sugar Research Australia website has a range of resources including details of the emergency use permits for Permethrin or Chlorantraniliprole to control fall armyworm
Thirty-nine-year-old Richmond River cane grower Marty Walsh has been elected as a Director on the NSW Sugar Milling Cooperative Board.
Marty, his wife Donna and their three young children farm 110 hectares of cane land on their Coraki property. In partnership with his parents Tom and Julie, the Walsh families grow sugarcane and soy bean on a total of 440 hectares of land in the Richmond Valley area.
A fifth-generation cane grower, Marty has been involved in sugarcane farming all of his life and his commitment to the NSW sugar industry also includes being an active member on the Richmond River Cane Growers Association board.
Chairman of NSW Sugar and Sunshine Sugar Jim Sneesby said; “I am pleased to welcome Marty to the board. He will bring a fresh approach and has proven to be a great asset to both the Richmond River Cane Growers and the broader NSW sugar industry sector. I look forward to working with a grower who has shown such great passion, commitment and vision to our industry.”
The NSW Sugar Milling Cooperative Board includes nine grower Directors, with three representatives from each of the milling areas – the Tweed, Richmond and Clarence Valley.
Maryborough sugarcane growers and the wider sugar industry have welcomed a $1.9 million funding commitment from the state government for transloading facility infrastructure.
The commitment follows close on the heels of a $2.5 million pledge from the federal government to support the plan that will see sugarcane grown, harvested and hauled in the Maryborough region milled into raw sugar at the Isis Central Sugar Mill at Childers.
Australian Sugar Milling Council chief executive David Pietsch said the transloading facility infrastructure will help safeguard hundreds of jobs in the Wide Bay-Burnett region.
Mr Pietsch said the funding was critical for enabling cane to be transported to Isis Central Sugar Mill, and he commended the Australian and Queensland governments for their funding commitments.
“We have worked to support our member Isis Central Sugar Mill and are pleased they have secured government support for this transport infrastructure to allow Maryborough region growers to deliver an estimated 380,000 tonnes of cane to the mill at Childers from this season,” Mr Pietsch said.
“The funding commitments announced by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Federal Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt, and Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles and Member for Maryborough and Assistant Minister Bruce Saunders, highlight the importance both governments place on the sugar industry for jobs,” Mr Pietsch said.
“At a time of economic upheaval for many industries and Queensland households, the sugar industry has continued to deliver jobs and economic activity in our regions.”
Mr Pietsch also acknowledged the engagement of the Department of State Development which was critical to securing the Queensland Government’s support.
Mr Pietsch said the funding will help secure 110 jobs in harvesting and field haulage operations and cane transportation otherwise at risk if cane cannot be transported to Isis Mill.
It will also support 681 direct and indirect jobs at Isis Central Mill and $99.2 million in economic activity.
Forty new ongoing seasonal jobs will be created in the operation of the Isis Central Mill and 44 jobs in the construction of the transloader facility.
It will also mean 8027 megawatt hours of additional renewable electricity generated from the Isis Central Sugar Mill.
Moth borers remain one of the highest priority pests for Australian sugar cane production.
For this reason, Australian researchers have taken a proactive approach to clarifying control measures and gathering information about the pest.
While not established in Australia, there are 36 major moth pest species worldwide with seven regarded as high risk to Australia.
The nation’s geographic proximity to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and South East Asia, where the moths live, mean Australia remains a potential migration point.
Speaking on the first day of the CaseIH Step Up conference in Bundaberg on Tuesday, Sugar Research Australia (SRA) molecular plant pathologist, Dr Nicole Thompson, said significant work had been done to forearm against the threat.
Some of this work included updating species and specimen information in databases and collections; preparing new dossiers based on this research; developing new diagnostic protocols; and updating the geographic distribution of the moth borers.
The pest was just one major concern mentioned by Dr Thompson who also spoke on iMapPESTS, a nationwide research and development collaborative initiative between Australia’s major plant industries with a goal of developing a way to rapidly monitor and report the presence of airborne pests and diseases for multiple agricultural sectors, including viticulture, grains, cotton, sugar, horticulture and forestry.
The project is about advanced surveillance technologies such as automated trapping and sampling for detecting and monitoring a wide range of endemic and exotic pests.
The project will also produce several flexible surveillance hubs with trapping technologies that can be mobilised in response to industry needs such as in response to incursions.
TECH: The Sentinel is a custom-designed surveillance trailer unit designed to offer optimal sampling of airborne fungal spores and insects.
One of the pieces of equipment is the Sentinel.
The Sentinel is a custom-designed surveillance trailer unit designed to offer optimal sampling of airborne fungal spores and insects.
The Sentinel has four different air samplers: two spore samplers which are high-volume, designed to collect airborne spores; a 2m insect suction trap to monitor localised insect dynamics; and 6m insect suction trap, for monitoring of long-distance migratory insect flights.
Each air sampler is automated and collects samples into small vials for fungal spores or larger vials or larger pots for insects.
These are barcoded and read by a scanner onboard and in the labs for complete traceability.
Dr Thompson said sugarcane had many established pests and diseases such as mosaic, Fiji leaf gall, leaf scald, smut, RSD and others.
It’s hoped the iMapPESTS project will assist multiple plant industries in managing these threats.
