A REDUCED cane crop will be crushed in the Herbert River district with adverse weather impacting the season.
With four weeks to go until the end of the crush, Wilmar has revised its estimate down to four million tonnes.
Herbert River Canegrowers chairman Michael Pisano said production would be down about 700,000 tonnes on last year.
"We had a very big wet season with huge rainfall events in December and January, then very little sunshine during the growing period," Mr Pisano said.
"There were some growers that were very heavily impacted in the lower Herbert area, some individuals lost quite a lot with complete paddocks unharvestable.
"The general trend was early in the season people were pleasantly surprised at the amount, but it has become obvious the estimate is not going to be achieved."
Wilmar's Herbert mills have processed about 80 per cent of the district's crop with the season set to finish on November 22.
Herbert regional operations manager Adam Douglas said the Herbert mills had hit two milestones last week.
"Victoria Mill passed the two million tonnes mark and Macknade Mill notched up one million tonnes of cane for the season," Mr Douglas said.
"Our mills have now processed 3.2 million tonnes of cane, which puts us at 80 per cent of the way through.
"We had a lot of rain in June and July, which pushed back the start date and interrupted the first month of crushing.
"But apart from that wet beginning, we've had relatively little in-season rain."
Mr Douglas said the run of dry months had caused the crop to drop off and Wilmar to revise the Herbert crop estimate.
"On a positive note, we've been seeing some good sugar content. Weekly CCS has been sitting above 14.5 for the past month, and last week it rose to 14.72."
Wilmar's maintenance teams are finalising work plans for the 2020 capital and maintenance program.
