Sugar Research Australia in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Agricultural service

Sugar Research Australia

Locality: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Phone: +61 7 3331 3333

Address: 50 Meiers Road 4068 Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Website: http://www.sugarresearch.com.au

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25.01.2022 Gaps? When to check your farm, field by field for Greyback grub damage! For more information on Greyback Canegrub management for your farm, check out the newly updated SRA Greyback Canegrub Management Manual: https://bit.ly/3bCq8LI

25.01.2022 Sugarcane growers in the Mackay and Plane Creek areas of Central Queensland will have the opportunity to gain a clearer understanding of the complex relationship between farming systems and water quality, through a new project that is about to commence. The Mackay-Whitsunday Cane to Creek project is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF), with support from SRA. It will run over the next three years... and will leverage decision support tools such as the SRA SIX EASY STEPS Toolbox and the forthcoming DAF Queensland Pesticide Selection Tool. In-field surveys of liquid imidacloprid applicators and sampling for imidacloprid in runoff water will also contribute to our understanding of this key chemical control for cane grubs. We will be working with growers on crop nutrition, pesticide stewardship and water quality science, as well as breaking down the barriers to bring science and industry to the same table. Phil Ross said. Contact Central Regional Coordinator Phil Ross for more information (07 49636823)

25.01.2022 SRA is inviting leading scientists, researchers, and research institutions to submit Expressions of Interest (EOIs)/ Tenders for new research investments in 2020/2021, with a focus on specific initiatives identified by the SRA Board. Alternatives to Imidacloprid ... E-network for rail-based cane transport systems Stepwise development of improved online sensors Smart Technologies for Biosecurity Surveillance Sustainable control options for root feeding pests Read more: https://sugarresearch.com.au//2020-21-research-project-in/

23.01.2022 Earlier this month we were in Giru harvesting one of our Soil Health Project Demonstration sites! This demonstration site compares the following farming systems: - 1.7m single row Q240A after a Millet grass fallow - 1.7m single row Q240A after a harvested Soybean fallow... - 1.83m dual row Q240A after a harvested Soybean fallow Working with the grower, each farming system was split into two after harvesting the plant crop to incorporate a mill mud treatment. Bonus points go to anyone who can guess if the harvester was team green or team red? The Soil Health Project of the Burdekin and Herbert regions builds on the learnings of the Sugar Yield Decline Joint Venture by measuring and tracking changes in soil health over time and seeing how they relate to different farming practices. For more information, please head to https://sugarresearch.com.au/soilhealth/ For any questions about the project please contact the Soil Health Officer in your region: Burdekin: Terry Granshaw (BPS) Herbert: Richard Hobbs (HCPSL) The SRA Soil Health Project of the Herbert & Burdekin regions is kindly supported by Herbert Cane Productivity Services Ltd Ingham, Burdekin Productivity Services , Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (Queensland Agriculture), Wilmar, The University of Queensland and University of Southern Queensland - Australia.

23.01.2022 Update: Reviewing Tillage Systems in the Bundaberg Region. Demonstration trial work began back in mid-September 2020, on a Bundaberg Sugar farm. The tillage systems currently being evaluated are:... Full conventional tillage (Rotary hoe, rip, rotary hoe) Bed renovator Wavey Coulter Paraplow Paraplow and Wavey coulter. The cane emergence was successful in all the tillage operations. The treatments where a single pass with the Bed renovator or Paraplow was used the soil maintained a better structure. It is anticipated that these operations will incur a much lower cost than the conventional system. A single pass with discs is planned for the fill-in stage to combat weed emergence. Meaning, the low tillage treatments have gone from soybean to established cane with three tillage operations 1) Coulter/Rip; 2) planting and 3) fill-in. The demonstration is a collaboration between DAF Coastal Farming Systems team and SRA. The DAF team plan to provide costings on the operations and share the results of the trial. Stay tuned!

23.01.2022 Wednesday the 25th of November at 8am our senior researcher Emilie Fillols will be presenting part two of her webinar series: Weeds and their impact on sugarcane A calendar invite to the webinar can be found here: https://sugarresearch.com.au/sra-information/events/ If you missed out on part one, a recording can be seen here: https://youtu.be/mlcQWRNfo8Q... To make sure you don't miss out on any future webinars from SRA, subscribe to Australian Cane Learning Centre on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3kvD75n

21.01.2022 Mackay-Whitsunday Cane to Creek project: The installation has commenced for paddock scale water quality samplers and flumes as part of the Mackay-Whitsunday Cane to Creek project! The samplers will collect end of row run-off water to be measured for nutrients and pesticides as well as water height and runoff time. This data can be used to improve irrigation efficiencies and reduce grower losses. Information and data from the demonstration site will provide growers with a cle...arer understanding of the complex relationship between farming systems and water quality. Stay tuned for trial information and outcomes! Image: Phil Ross, Molly O’Dea and Matt Schembri installing one of two flumes at the Rocky Creek Dam catchment demonstration site The Mackay-Whitsunday Cane to Creek project is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF), with support from SRA.

20.01.2022 Background - Managing soil constraints Burdekin grower, Armin Wessel talks about managing soil constraints on his farm with Terry Granshaw from Burdekin Productivity Services: https://youtu.be/IumB1YyzrwI This video was filmed in 2019, prior to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.... The SRA Soil Health Project of the Herbert & Burdekin regions is kindly supported by Herbert Cane Productivity Services Ltd Ingham, Burdekin Productivity Services, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (Queensland Agriculture), Wilmar, The University of Queensland and University of Southern Queensland - Australia.

19.01.2022 Part two - Trial process Burdekin grower, Armin Wessel talks about what's involved in doing a trial with the Soil Health Project: https://youtu.be/LwYE3thL4ds... This video was filmed in 2019, prior to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. The SRA Soil Health Project of the Herbert & Burdekin regions is kindly supported by Herbert Cane Productivity Services Ltd Ingham, Burdekin Productivity Services, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (Queensland Agriculture), Wilmar, The University of Queensland and University of Southern Queensland - Australia.

19.01.2022 Part three - Trial goals Burdekin grower, Armin Wessel talks about what kind of results he's looking forward to from his trial with the Soil Health Project: https://youtu.be/J6Mq8zfJhuM This video was filmed in 2019, prior to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.... The SRA Soil Health Project of the Herbert & Burdekin regions is kindly supported by Herbert Cane Productivity Services Ltd Ingham, Burdekin Productivity Services, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (Queensland Agriculture), Wilmar, The University of Queensland and University of Southern Queensland - Australia.

19.01.2022 SRA is looking for an experienced Graphic Designer to join our team and help us communicate with industry stakeholders. In this role, you will have a great chance to own the SRA brand, and focus your skills on magazines, information sheets, technical manuals, and corporate publications. https://www.seek.com.au/job/50924135

17.01.2022 Don't miss out, Small Milling Research Program (SMRP) open for applications! Applications are open from 01 October 2020 until 31 January 2021. Applicants can apply for up to $75,000 per project. The SRA SMRP was developed to work with sugarcane millers and researchers in order deliver tangible outcomes to the industry. SRA will invest in small projects to develop a product, service, or process that will solve targeted problems in sugar mills. Interested? Follow the link to view application and requirements. If you have any additional questions please leave a comment below.

16.01.2022 Part one - Why work with the Soil Health Project? Burdekin grower, Armin Wessel talks about why he's involved with the Soil Health Project: https://youtu.be/iXvlqQIR1Po This video was filmed in 2019, prior to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.... The SRA Soil Health Project of the Herbert & Burdekin regions is kindly supported by Herbert Cane Productivity Services Ltd Ingham, Burdekin Productivity Services, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (Queensland Agriculture), Wilmar, The University of Queensland and University of Southern Queensland - Australia.

16.01.2022 Thinking about applying grub control on one of your blocks? Here are the recommended treatment windows of the Greyback Canegrub for plant cane and ratoon cane.

16.01.2022 Reviewing Tillage Systems in the Bundaberg Region. Neil Halpin and Bill Rehbein from DAF Coastal Farming Systems Team are collaborating with SRA in Bundaberg to investigate tillage practices. They have picked up a new tractor which will allow them to accurately log fuel use and work rate. The strip trials will conduct a full economic analysis on five different tillage systems. The trial will combine the economic and crop performance data to determine the best bang for buck w...hen transitioning from a soybean fallow to a plant cane crop. The tillage systems being evaluated are: Full conventional tillage (Rotary hoe, rip, rotary hoe) Bed renovator Wavey Coulter Paraplow Paraplow and Wavey coulter. Trial results will be available after the plant cane is harvested. Stay tuned! SRA acknowledges the funding contribution of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries towards this research activity.

16.01.2022 Just a couple of days left to submit your photos to the Sugar Snaps photo competition - send your entries to [email protected] for a chance to win https://sugarresearch.com.au/sra-information/sugar-snaps/

15.01.2022 Project Collaboration: Burdekin The adoption project 'Cane to Creek 2.0' and the innovation project 'Project Catalyst' are working together on a trial to investigate the potential nitrogen input that a soybean fallow crop contributes to the following sugarcane crop. This trial site includes three rates of nitrogen for a plant cane crop that include standard practice, accounting for legume nitrogen, and one middle rate. ... The commercial soybean crop was harvested early this year and the nitrogen rates for plant cane were calculated and applied based on SRA's 6 easy steps methodology. The Burdekin Productivity Services (BPS) and SRA teams are monitoring all parameters of the trial. This includes chemical soil tests, irrigation efficiency, water quality, productivity data, growth measurements, and plant biomassing (pictured below). The trial will be harvested next year. Stay tuned!

14.01.2022 Cane Maturity Testing Trailer: Mackay The Cane Maturity Trailer was supplied by MicroAg, Cairns and is being used in Mackay to compare the maturity of new varieties across the harvest season. This "mobile mill" allows in field sugar content measurements for speedy comparisons of the different varieties. SRA Adoption Officer, Matt Schembri, says the Cane Maturity Trailer is an example of SRA and Productivity Services collaborating to address a high priority adoption obstacle.... For more information on the Cane Maturity trailer please contact Phil Ross : Central Region, Regional Coordinator [email protected] Matt Schembri: Adoption Officer, Mackay [email protected]

14.01.2022 Check out what is happening in your region: Tully Edition Last week the team at Tully planted over three thousand one eye setts! The one eye setts were planted to assess Pachymetra resistance in 778 sugarcane variety clones. ... There are different strains of Pachymetra up and down the coast of Queensland. To assess resistance effectively SRA screens multiple isolates of the Pachymetra Fungus. Four Pachymetra isolates were used in this trial!

14.01.2022 If anyone missed our three part Biosecurity webinar series last month you can view the presentations on our YouTube channel: - Epidemics are inevitable: learning from past events (https://bit.ly/3c8KMmR) - Diseases: major threats and current research (https://bit.ly/3hzsH2t)... - Pests: major threats and current research (https://bit.ly/3iGc5aD) To make sure you don't miss out on any future webinars from SRA, subscribe to Australian Cane Learning Centre on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3kvD75n

13.01.2022 Recently, the Central region seedling selection day was held at the Mackay station. This day is to encourage growers and industry to learn more about the sugarcane plant breeding process and gives them the opportunity to become involved in the selection of potential new varieties for the industry. The seedlings are selected from a 1st ratoon Progeny Assessment Trial (PAT), the first stage of the breeding program. Data that is collected from the plant cane harvest is used to identify the best performing families, from which the best seedlings are selected to progress to the next stage. Growers that joined SRA on the day were able to select a seedling they thought looked good and have their name attached to it for future reference to see how far it will go in the selection pipeline.

12.01.2022 Read the latest results from on-farm demonstration trials measuring water quality as part of the Pathways to Water Quality Improvement in the Myrtle Creek Sub-catchment project on the SRA website: https://sugarresearch.com.au/growers-and-m/farming-systems/ (bottom of page) You can also read the Pesticide Risk Matrix fact sheet to find out more about the toxicity of different chemicals and read up on the principles: 1. Less on = Less off 2. Pay attention to timing... 3. The right product. At the right rate. In the right place. At the right time. Contact Proserpine based Adoption Officer, Molly, to find out more (0439619082)

10.01.2022 Innovation in variety development! Nematodes feed on the roots of sugarcane, causing an estimated $80M pa in losses. All varieties are susceptible. SRA screened a collection of wild sugarcane relatives and found some with very strong resistance. A cross was made between a resistant wild relative and the variety Q208 these seedlings are the offspring. ... They are being propagated at Brandon before sending material to Woodford to find out which of them have inherited nematode resistance. The ‘least wild’ looking resistant clones will return to Meringa for crossing and the next steps on the journey to becoming a commercial variety for industry. This introgression and breeding work aims to provide growers with a new trait to improve performance in the paddock.

10.01.2022 Plant parasitic nematodes cost the Australian sugar industry 80 million dollars a year in productivity loss. Find out which nematodes in sugarcane are friends and which are foe and how you can manage damaging nematodes. Follow the link to view Dr Shamsul Bhuiyan, Principal Research Scientist, showcase SRA’s research on management of plant parasitic nematodes for last 10 plus years. ... For key points on nematode information and management click the link below. https://sugarresearch.com.au//nematodes-in-sugarcane-frie/

08.01.2022 In the Herbert region SRA and HCPSL are working together on the Cane to Creek 2.0 project to help growers identify practical ways to optimize chemical applications and improve water quality leaving the farm. The rainfall simulation is comparing runoff from chemicals that are common in the Herbert, as well as some new products. Chemicals used in Herbert demonstration; Palmyro TX, Barrage, Flame, Valor, Bobcat Imaxx, Atradex WG, Balance 750 WG, Mentor WG, Amitron, and Clincher. Stay tuned for results! Any questions? Leave a comment below

07.01.2022 RSD LINKED TO BILLET PLANTERS Recent tracking of Ratoon Stunting Disease (RSD) field spread in a Far Northern Mill area linked billet planters using dip type fungicide application to increased disease incidence. RSD is a significant issue contributing to productivity and profitability losses to individual growers and the broader industry.... RSD is easily spread within and between farms. Because there are a number of regular farm practices that can spread RSD, its management requires a coordinated approach at a district and individual level. Find out more about RSD here: https://sugarresearch.com.au/disea/ratoon-stunting-disease/

07.01.2022 As part of the Central Region’s Soil Health Project, Perspex boxes were planted with one eye sett seedlings. The boxes had different soil constraints including: acidic, Pachymetra, compacted and sodic. They were planned to be used as visual demonstrations at grower days however, with the COVID-19 restrictions we were unable to do this. Recently the central team removed the plants and washed the soil from the roots. The roots will now be analysed using winRHIZO, which is a root scanning program that is able to classify and measure the root system, to compare treatments. This technology has also been used at 5 paired sites in the central region, where changes in soil health under a range of farming practices are being measured.

06.01.2022 The Bundaberg AquaTill, how Bundaberg gets through cane trash! The AquaTill demonstration implement is now ready for action and its ability to slice through cane trash has been proven. In the 2020 harvest season the Landcare and SRA funded project will focus on proof of concept to:... 1. Placement of product at the required depth. (Liquid insecticides to control cane grubs are required to be placed at 100mm below the soil surface and the application slot to be sealed). 2. Planting and growing a viable legume crop into cane trash with ZERO tillage If proven, the AquaTill will demonstrate to industry that there is technology available that has the potential to reduce input costs and maximise profitability, increase soil biology, reduce loss of fine sediment and reduce loss of pesticides to the environment and to effectively place pesticides. SRA will keep you posted on its progress! For more information please contact: James Ogden-Brown: SRA Southern Region Coordinator [email protected]

06.01.2022 Fall armyworm podcasts have been launched! With investment from SRA, the Plant Biosecurity Research Initiative (PRBI) have launched three podcasts on the impact and management of fall armyworm for growers across Australia. The podcasts feature interviews with:... Growers and agronomists on their first-hand experience in managing new and emerging pests Leading Australian researchers on their latest findings and observations International experts who share their experiences and learnings. Follow the link below for podcasts and leave a comment in the comment box below if you have any further questions. https://www.pbri.com.au/pbri-podcasts/

04.01.2022 SRA staff attended Reef Catchment’s Bring Your Land To Life Day at Finch Hatton on Saturday. SRA staff, Molly and Phil, were ready for a chat and shared information from SRA projects including Pathways to Water Quality Improvements in the Myrtle Creek Sub-catchment.

02.01.2022 Check out what is happening in your region: Burdekin Edition This month trials are being harvested right, left and centre! A few examples; Soil Health, Cane to Creek 2.0, Enhanced Efficiently Fertilisers (EEF60), Harvester Efficiencies, etc. Productivity data is being generated from each trial so stay tuned for more project information and what trials we are investigating here in the Burdekin.... Burdekin Questions? Leave us a comment down below!

01.01.2022 SRA is validating the SIX EASY STEPS (6ES) guidelines for the Rocky Point district: 6ES team members Gavan Rodman and Sebastien Garcia-Cuenca have finished harvesting the first year of trials. The Rocky Point trials compare the 6ES nutrient recommendations to the standard (most common) local nutrient rates. The project will run for five consecutive years with three years of harvest data from each trial site. The attached photo is the 3rd 6ES validation trial for Rocky Point to be fertilised this season.