Download (4Mb) - USQ ePrints - University of Southern Queensland

northern New South Wales (where it is cooler) it takes 18-24 months to grow. Typically, a cropping
cycle comprises one plant crop and 3-4 ratoon (regrowth) crops.
During harvest, the cane harvester drives along each row and cuts the cane stalk off at the bottom of
the plant. The long stalk is then cut into many shorter lengths called ‘billets’ (around 30 cm).
Another machine known as a cane haulout drives alongside the harvester, collecting all the billets.
The cane haulout collects billets until its full, then drives across the paddock to the road or rail, where
it unloads its contents either into a semi-truck (for road transport) or mill bins at local sidings on the
nearest railway track (for train transport). Once sugarcane has been harvested, it must be transported
to a sugar mill as soon as possible. The longer it takes, the more sugarcane juice stored in the stalks
will evaporate - so it is important that it arrives within 16 hours of being cut, to minimise
deterioration.
Australia’s sugarcane is harvested during the drier months in tropical climates – between June and
December each year - depending on the weather.
1.1.6 Farming systems (other crops, field layout, machinery)
Mallee System
The mallee coppice crops are typically grown in belt configurations, commonly in four rows per belt,
but increasingly with two rows, with the inter-belt alleys varying, from 40 to 100 metres or more
across. There is a two metre buffer zone either side of the outer rows of a belt, and a competition
zone beyond that as shown in Figure 1.4. The width of the cropping zone is driven by the cereal
production system (i.e. the seeder and spray boom widths).
An inter-row spacing of at least three metres is recommended and the intra-row spacing is typically
two metres to maintain a reasonably consistent flow of material into the harvester, which equates to
1,430 mallees per hectare of land directly occupied by the belt. The density of planting has varied as
the industry has developed, with some very high densities in early plantings, but current indications
are that a wider inter-row spacing not only improves access for harvesting but will improve yield per
kilometre of belt. The use of more than two rows is not efficient in most circumstances due to the
strong edge effect that develops as competition within the belt increases with age (Peck et al 2011).
The productive capacity of the strip of land occupied by the belt is captured by two rows, and adding
more rows merely distributes the production of biomass across more mallees and increases
competition between them.
Establishment is by seedlings and some indicative establishment and ongoing management costs are
presented in Table 1.3 from the 2008 Mallee Industry Development Plan (URS, 2008). Costs are
likely to be lower if operations are undertaken by the farmer, with total establishment costs typically
being approximately $1,000 per hectare, with the purchase of seedlings being about 60% of that cost.
Table 1.3
Establishment and management costs for contract operations (adapted from URS,
2008)
Cost per planted hectare
Establishment, site preparation, weed control
and planting
$1,100
Seedlings at 1,430 per hectare $500
12