Herbert River district grower Frank Russo believes he’s defied industry critics who labelled cane farmers ‘dinosaurs’ by gaining best practice accreditation in the three core modules of Smartcane BMP.
The 70-years-young third generation farmer said he did it to prove a point – and that point might be that he and others of his generation can teach a thing or two about being good environmental stewards.
In the cane lands south of Ingham, where the Bruce Highway can be cut several times during a typical wet season, politics runs as thick as the humid air. Name your topic and it’s sure to spark a lively discussion with Frank Russo.
Grower choice in sugar marketing, multinationals in the milling sector, food security, the exodus of young people from rural communities, blaming farmers for destroying the Great Barrier Reef - with many a tough season under his belt, Frank brings to the table strong views on the issues impacting day-today life in rural Australia.
At the Russo family’s 124 hectare Helen’s Hill farm, the newly-BMP-accredited farmer is busy applying sub-surface nutrient to thriving rows of plant cane.
He uses a triple row fertiliser box constructed at the nearby Rinaudo Engineering factory in Macknade. It’s the sort of technology that is increasingly being adopted by cane farmers living in proximity to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon to ensure nutrients stay on the farm.
A closer examination revealed that the coulters beneath the fertiliser box were not spaced to split the stools. Instead, fertiliser was being applied immediately adjacent to the stool with side-dress coulters and the tractor was being driven under GPS guidance to ensure spot-on application.
It’s a methodology that, as Frank explained, was developed over several years to suit the drier country to the south of Ingham, where stools – and productivity - can suffer from being split during the drier months of the early growing season.
It’s a practice that has approval under the rigorous industry standard for granular fertiliser under Smartcane BMP.
“We can't irrigate and if you stool split you’ll kill it or you’ll set it back to such an extent that it drops our production down,” Frank explained.
“None of my neighbours stool split, they all apply it on the side of the stool,” he said.
The Helen’s Hill farm is one of three in the district where the Russo family grows cane. The portfolio includes Frank and wife Gwenda’s home farm at Hawkins Creek on the Cardwell Range side of the Herbert River and another neighbouring farm for a total area of about 400 hectares under cane.
Nutrient management techniques differ between the farms. At Hawkins Creek, where rainfall is slightly higher and the soil type more suitable, stool splitting works just fine according to Frank.
The use of different techniques to suit different farms is a case-in-point for why this farmer of 50 years’ experience is sceptical of efforts by government to regulate best management practices on farm and he cautions against any ‘onesize- fits-all’ approach.
As Frank recalled, it all began with a visiting public servant from a government department once telling “dinosaur” cane farmers in the Ingham region to change their farming practices or, “get out of the industry”.
That comment motivated him to prove he was not only up for the challenge of achieving best practice, but wanted to prove that a lot of what he’s been doing for a long time, before there was any Reef Rescue funding to build the machinery, was already consistent with industry best practice.
“I had to do it just to prove that I was not a dinosaur and even the old dinosaurs can comply with all the new rules and regulations.
“We have been laser levelling for years, we already make spoon drains. We already trash blanket, we already zero till. We are already doing it.”
He pointed to the progressive shift to green cane harvesting in the Ingham district as an example of how the industry has worked in a progressive fashion to deliver improved environmental outcomes over time.
“The big thing that has happened in farm management in the 50 years that I’ve been farming was green cane harvesting and that happened 30 years ago.
“Because of the mulching, conserving moisture and all the benefits that go with green cane, you don’t cultivate so you don’t get erosion, you don’t get soil runoff plus the trash rots and breaks down and becomes a nutrient.”
There’s an obvious parallel with the current emphasis on keeping agricultural inputs on farm. As Frank sees things, a steady, progressive shift to improved practices in nutrient, chemical and sediment management will benefit both the environment and the farmer’s bottom line.
“Our two biggest expenses outside of harvesting on our farms is chemical and fertiliser.
“We want to use the minimum amount that we need to grow our crop and we want it to stay on our farm.
“We do environmentally friendly things, we have never been knowingly - emphasising knowingly, environmental vandals.”
The Smartcane BMP program has been specifically crafted so as not to be prescriptive, which suits Frank.
He tried controlled traffic farming on a dual row 1.8 metre spacing 20 years ago but didn’t achieve productivity gains over a full growing cycle.
"There was a small increase in the plant cane and the first ratoon but after that it went backwards.
"It didn't work and it wasn't worth the investment in reconfiguring machinery to suit the row spacings."
The Russos use a minimal till system, most machinery wheel tracks are set to match the row spacing and equipment is operated under GPS guidance. It ticks the Smartcane BMP boxes for minimising compaction and tillage management.
One of concerns moving forward with Smartcane BMP is how the regulatory minimums for nutrient application in the Wet Tropics and optimum nutrient rates under the program are impacting on productivity.
He believes industry will need to find ways to compensate for cutting back on fertiliser use – through things such as better fertilisers, varieties or other soil health measures.
“This year I’m down to 140 kilos per hectare of nitrogen. That is bare minimum.
“As we’re getting down to these low amounts our production is sneaking down, not getting better."
He's hoping the new varieties coming through the system can compensate for the lower usage of fertiliser.
"If they can't we just have to make a decision whether we continue to grow cane or we grow something else!"
Another bugbear for Frank is the paperwork required to keep pace with the new reality. Fortunately, it’s an area where help is available through the network of Smartcane BMP facilitators.
The program’s website at www.smartcane.com.au contains resources to help with detailed record keeping - from pocket notebooks to Smartphone aps to assist with the record keeping.
Frank was thankful for the assistance provided by Canegrowers Herbert River Smartcane BMP facilitator Maria Battoraro in helping collect the information needed to secure accreditation.
He attributes much of his knowledge of agricultural science to his two years as a student at Abergowrie College but said the BMP modules did help refresh that knowledge.
“I have fairly good working knowledge of the soil, bacterial activity, how fertiliser breaks down - we studied all that at school.
“I found out that the intensity they used to put into those two years of agricultural education was equivalent to tertiary level today!"
Turning back to the politics of it all, Frank affirmed that he was no poster-boy for Smartcane BMP and he would rather live without any form of regulation, be it industry driven or enforced regulation.
Nonetheless, in the absence of a choice, his message to fellow growers is that if a ‘dinosaur’ can become Smartcane BMP accredited, so can they.
“The only thing that a lot of my fellow growers have got to start to understand is that the rules are there whether we like it or not and I don’t like it as much as the next bloke.
“But at the end of the day I don't think they’re going to change them in a hurry.
“We haven’t got a choice to say whether we comply or not because the gun’s been put at our head with a live round in it and it’s been cocked.
“To stay Smartcane BMP accredited, the way we are now, is the best.”
