CHARLES ‘ CANED’
PRINCE Charles has whipped up a storm in farming circles with his comment that he’d “been told” sugarcane farmers were still using chemicals banned decades ago.
Prince Charles ( pictured) made the comment when visiting Lady Elliot Island as part of his Australian tour this month.
He said chemicals banned 25 years ago were running into Great Barrier Reef waters.
The comments created headlines but farmers were and remain affronted he made the statement without first checking the veracity of what he had been told.
After calling the suggestion farmers were using banned chemicals “unbelievable”, Cardwell district grower Peter Jack- son said farmers were doing the “right thing”.
He said they were doing everything in their power to minimise reef run- off.
Mr Jackson’s farm is a showpiece, proving what can be done to minimise nutrient and silt run- off and at the same time create a wonderland for native vegetation and wildlife.
Mr Jackson harvests more than 30,000 tonnes of cane a year on his Murray Valley farm.
The farm is crisscrossed with interlocking, man- made nutrient and silt canals lined with gum trees and grasses.
The grassy banks are designed to serve as a giant filtration system, catching the last vestiges of silt running across the laser- levelled farm before the water finds its way into the Murray River south of Tully. Gum trees that provide shade along the drains ensure greater water quality, providing a remote and healthy habitat for fish and other wildlife.
Mr Jackson regularly has the leaves of his cane plants tested to ensure he is not overusing fertiliser and that the nutrient levels in his plants are in balance.
Drainage channels were dug mechanically, but with gums, water lilies and abundant wildlife, they look like creeks and lagoons that have been there since the dawn of time.
In the early 2000s state government environmental officers used to carry out electro fishing in Mr Jackson’s ponds.
They were astounded at the fish life coming to the surface.
“They tagged a 405 mm barramundi once,” he said. “Two years later they caught the same fish and it measured 730mm. It had grown 325mm in two years.
“Another barra they caught measured 345mm. Five months later they caught it again and it grown 163mm.
“That tells you how much food there is in the draining system and how healthy it is as a habitat.”
Former cane farmer turned Smartcane Best Management Practice ( BMP) facilitator for the Tully area, Nick Stipis, is astounded by the statements made by Prince Charles.
He said he has visited more than 100 farmers who are in the process of obtaining BMP accreditation. He said he has never found a farmer using any unregistered chemicals. “I’ve never seen any chemicals on these farms that are not registered for use. Prince Charles has been misin- formed. He has made a serious error of judgment,” he said.
Mr Stipis said organochlorine chemicals such as heptachlor and HCB were banned in the 1980s. Other organochlorines which have long been on the banned list include DDT and dieldrin.
Peak industry body Canegrowers has expressed surprise and disappointment at the comments made by Britain’s first in line to the throne.
“The sale and use of herbicides and pesticides on cane farms in the reef catchment is highly regulated,” Canegrowers’ chairman Paul Schembri said.
“Almost three quarters of the cane farming area of Queensland has been voluntarily enrolled in our industry best management practices program, Smartcane BMP, by growers who are committed to farming for sustainability as well as productivity and profitability.”