CROP TAKES CANING
INGHAM’S sugar crop has been hit hard by flooding with about 80 per cent of cane affected.
Farmers said crops suffered significant damage from fastmoving currents.
Canegrowers Herbert River chairman Michael Pisano said it was a tough situation for growers.
“It is really a mixed bag, people are saying they’ve had very little, while others have had stacks of damage,” he said.
Mr Pisano said he had seen photos of young sugar cane wiped out by strong currents.
Some farms near Ingham and further north still have some of their crop underwater.
“After about three days ( in water) you start getting some big losses,” Mr Pisano said.
Besides the damage to sugar cane, one of the biggest expenses for farmers was infrastructure damage, he said.
“Growers are always impacted by damage to infrastructure and it’s very expensive too.”
Although the flood peaked last Friday at a similar level to the 2009 floods, Mr Pisano said some members told him the numbers were higher than in any other flood.
He said growers out near Cordelia were reporting the flood was higher than the record levels in 1967.
Mr Pisano knows first hand how much damage has been done around Ingham, as he owns a farm outside the town, on the way to Forrest Beach.
“We’ve been really lucky though, unlike some of the other growers district,” he said.
His property is too far from the river to be affected by flooding.
Canegrowers chief executive officer Dan Galligan said it was taking time to access all the flooded farms to assess the damage.
“This situation causes us a lot of concern,” he said.
“We’re hoping that over the coming days all of the water will recede and the ground will start to dry out.
“Only then around will we the get a clear picture of what the flooding means for cane yields, in terms of tonnage and sugar content.
“Where total losses are being seen it is in blocks of young plant cane that has been submerged and where fastmoving water has caused erosion, washing out sections of paddocks and taking plants with it.
“Where plants have survived, the flooding may mean slower growth and a setback to the development of the sugar in the stalks.”