Cassowary Coast Reef Smart Farming - Canegrowers Innisfail

14/10/2026

🌾 Happy International Day of Rural Women! 💚

Today, we celebrate the women who play an important role in agriculture and our rural communities.

09/10/2026

It’s more than just a crop. 🌱

Sugarcane supports growers, contractors, millers, local businesses and communities across our region.

Every paddock represents months of planning, management and hard work before the crop ever reaches the mill.

Each season brings different conditions, different challenges and plenty of decisions for growers along the way. 🌱🚜

That’s where the CCRSF Extension Team can help. We provide enterprise-specific advice and recommendations across a range of areas, including soil and nutrition management, pest and disease management, variety selection, harvest management and whole-farm best management practices.

Working alongside growers to identify opportunities, address constraints and support practical, informed decision-making across the farm. 🌱

02/10/2026

Mill Mud - an important mill by-product with forgotten benefits!

Mill mud has an ability to rejuvenate ‘tired’ soils and improve soil health because of the high organic matter content.
It also provides moisture and a ready source P during crop establishment and germination. It helps to reduce soil acidification.🌱

The nutrient composition of mill mud is known to vary from mill to mill, year to year, month to month, day to day, etc, and is often associated with the source and extraneous matter (EM) in the cane supply. Nonetheless, the fundamental chemical, physical and biological properties ensure that mill mud provides at least some value irrespective of when and/or where it is applied. ♻️ 🪱🌿

It is important that nutrient management plans account for the supply of nutrients when mill mud is applied and that the associated financial advantages are recognized.

The combination of all of these provide an opportunity too good to miss during the current circumstances of low sugar prices and high input costs!💸 🧑‍🌾

25/09/2026

🌱 Fallow in the Crop Cycle

Fallowing can play an important role in a healthy sugarcane production system. 🌱

🌿 Benefits of fallow crops can include:
• Breaking the monoculture
• Helping reduce pest, disease and w**d pressures
• Protecting soil from erosion
• Improving soil health
• Adding nutrients and organic matter back into the system

There are a number of fallow crops that are suited to our Wet Tropics climate, including both legumes and non-legumes.

🫘 LEGUMES
• Soybean
• LabLab
• Cowpea
• Sunn H**p

🌻 NON-LEGUMES
• Sunflower
• Tillage radish
• Mustard

🌱 A well-managed fallow can be an opportunity to give the soil a break while setting the paddock up for the next sugarcane crop.

21/09/2026

11/09/2026

CANEGROWERS is backing R U OK? Day this crush season. Long days and big pressure are part of the job — so is looking out for each other.
Ask your crew. Ask yourself. Ask again next week.

09/09/2026

Making the most of the sunshine and sampling for nutrients and Pachymetra ☀️

After harvest is a great time to take a closer look at what’s happening beneath the crop.

Soil sampling gives us an indication of the nutrient levels in the soil, helping guide growers with fertiliser and ameliorant decisions. Pachymetra sampling is also important to help growers understand disease pressure in their paddocks and support variety selection decisions.

Innisfail growers, if you’re wanting to take and send a nutrient or Pachymetra sample away, feel free to contact us. We can help organise the sampling and testing process 🌱

18/08/2026

FREE WEBINAR SERIES FOR GROWERS
Good records lead to better business decisions.
Join our three-part Business Essentials webinar series and learn practical bookkeeping skills that can help improve record keeping, reduce compliance risks and make BAS time easier.
🗓 1 September – Bookkeeping Foundations
🗓 3 September – Good Habits, Better Records
🗓 8 September – Bookkeeping to BAS
🕐 1:00pm – 2:30pm
Topics include:
👉Farm bookkeeping systems
👉Chart of accounts and reporting
👉Record keeping best practice
👉GST coding and compliance
👉BAS preparation
👉Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Free for growers.🚜👍
Presented by CANEGROWERS through the Farm Business Resilience Program.
bit.ly/CANEGROWERS-webinar

04/06/2026

REMINDER - W**D WORKSHOP NEXT WEEK! Invitation to growers in SOUTH JOHNSTONE and INNISFAIL. In this customised practical workshop for growers, SRA W**d Scientist, Emilie Fillols, will use relatable farming scenarios and share how to take control of w**ds before they take control of your farm. The workshop will include:
1. Quickly identify w**ds with the digital tools you already have in your pocket.
2. Choose herbicides mindful of w**d pressures, your farming system and alternative chemical groups.
3. Practise your skills on a real life scenario.

Morning tea and refreshments provided

When: Thursday 11 June
Time: 8am – 11am
Where: Innisfail CANEGROWERS conference room 88 Rankin Street, Innisfail
Register for this workshop at:
https://sugarresearch.com.au/upcoming_events/advanced-pre-emergent-herbicide-workshop/

Cassowary Coast Reef Smart Farming - Canegrowers Innisfail
Ibcps Innisfail Babinda Queensland Cane Agriculture & Renewables Queensland Agriculture