Long-time cane grower branches out into macadamias

Cane farmer John Russo and his wife, Debbie, own and operate JA and DG Russo Farming that involves 400 hectares of red volcanic Childers soil, along Farnsfield Rd, North Isis.

Leaving school at 15, Mr Russo worked in the family farm operation that was based around Childers with his parents and three brothers until his father, Harry, died, in 2003, and his mother, Rose, died in 2012, and the operation was split, in 2014, between the four brothers.

"Mum and dad had about 150 hectares to start and then the family accumulated farms over the years. It was divided up as to where we lived and we, the brothers, have all expanded since that time," Mr Russo said.

"We've got a mixture of predominately sugar cane and then over the years we have transitioned into peanuts as a break crop for our sugar cane, and we've always had some cattle, mainly in the areas where we can't farm or do anything else."

About four years ago, when the price of cane fell to about $35 a tonne, Mr Russo said he and his wife and son, Matthew, made the conscious decision to plant macadamias which were selling for $6 a kilogram at the time.

Mr Russo said they planted 27,000 macadamia trees on land previously used for cattle or where it was hard to pivot irrigate.

"Macadamias - that was going to be the thing of the future, that was where the money was, that was where the gravy train was," he said.

Mr Russo said the farming operation was still about 75 per cent sugar, however, and they aimed to harvest about 110 tonne a hectare.

He said they would probably harvest anywhere between 320-350 hectares of cane each year and it all went by rail to the Isis Mill.

They generally try for five return crops with one fallow year or a break crop of peanuts for every plant of cane.

"From time to time, you may have disease in a crop and only get five returns or you may have a plant and only get two returns," Mr Russo said.

"The harvest will generally start in mid to late June and go through until all the crop's off. Last year or the year before, we went right through until January which is unheard of and what that does is it pushes everything back and we struggle a bit. Most times we finish at the end of November."

Mr Russo said their biggest challenge was the weather as all their cane was irrigated although this summer's rain had meant they had not had to irrigate since before Christmas until mid February.

"Which is unheard of, it's just been phenomenal...we're usually flat out irrigating," he said.

The second-generation farmer said this meant the cane was at least two months ahead of where it would normally be at this time for the Childers' area.

Apart from the weather, Mr Russo said they also had to contend with pests like cane grubs and soldier fly, and RSD (return starting disease).

"But, predominately...cane is like a grass, if it's got sunshine, it's got water and fertiliser, it will grow. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to grow good sugar cane, you just need good farming practices," he said.

"Fifty five years of growing cane and I'm still learning though, I don't know everything."

At the moment, Mr Russo finds that the two best cane varieties for his farm are 240 and KQ228.

"They're bringing out new varieties into the market place, but none have really captured our eye yet," he said.

"We plant a bit of 208 which is an older variety and does well in the red soil, but we're struggling to find that silver bullet like a variety that can really hit the spot like those other two I just mentioned.

"We are trialling some of the newer varieties, some of the SRA varieties, but some are just a fail so we're working our way through it."

Mr Russo believes research needs to be further along than it is in developing new varieties that are smut and RSD resistant.

Once planted, Mr Russo puts about 640kgs of 140S fertiliser per hectare per season on his return crops and only uses pesticide as needed.

With all the rain this season, they have had to be extremely vigilant with their weed management, particularly because of "a myriad of grasses" including Johnson grass, guinea grass and couch in the cane.

To rehabilitate the soil between cane crops, the Russos plant a legume such as peanuts to add nutrients into the soil and break the "cane cycle".

Peanut hay, when they get it, is fed to their Droughtmaster cattle of about 100 head. The Russos sell steers and older heifers through Biggenden saleyards.

Mr Russo said peanuts were planted in late September/early October with all the fertiliser added to the soil before planting.

They planted Menzies variety last year because it was a shorter crop of 18-20 weeks instead of up to 24 weeks with other varieties, and they started harvesting this week.

With the macadamias, the Russos have handed over management of the trees and crop to Mr Russo's nephew, Michael Russo.

Mr Russo said the tree planting and growing had been a long journey which started in December, 2019.

"It's not yet profitable, far from it....but we will get a small return this year. We got seven tonne last year and we hope to do between 40 and 50 tonne this year," he said.

"In the ensuing years, the younger varieties will come on and we will probably top out at 250-300 tonne in three to five years."

The Russos planted mostly 203 and 741 varieties because they were "good producing and stable", as well as a small amount of MCT1s and A16s.

"There's a lot of work in macadamias. Sugar cane can take a hell of a hiding from wind and drought," Mr Russo said.

"If you had a massive drought and you lost the cane, you can plant it again whereas if you lost a tree, you've lost three to five years. If it's windy, cane will just fall over and come back - it's really hardy compared to trees and every year you get a crop with sugar cane."

To improve the nut yield, Mr Russo said the practices were, however, very similar to sugar cane.

"You need good nutrition and a good clean, well-presented orchard...if it's uneven ground, there's no way the fingers of the harvester machine can pick up the nuts off the ground. Everything has got to be done properly," he said.

That includes slashing the grass under the trees every week this season because of the rain and spraying the trees for pests and to help retain the fruit. The trees are watered through a trickle system on a weekly basis if there's no rain and more when it's really dry.

"The trees are just starting to drop some nuts now so I would think we will start to harvest mid to late March. "We will do our first harvest and then probably do a final one around about May," Mr Russo said.

"We're optimistic they will pay off though at this stage we have no plans to plant any more and I see that sugar is going to be good at around $65 a tonne of cane this season. The idea with the macadamias was to diversify and spread the risk."

The Russos sell their peanuts into Kingaroy and their macadamias to Stahmann Webster in Bundaberg.