Sugar Cane

I'm from WA. I've just visited my sister in Townsville, QLD. We took a drive to Ayr and saw the sugar cane growing alongside the highway. We saw two types of cane fields. Some of the fields had sugar cane that was greener, robust and no seed heads. In other fields the cane was slightly less green and many canes had seed heads.

I wondered if the emergence of seed heads indicated the cane should be harvested?

Are there any knowledgable Queenslanders who could interpret what I saw?


Thanks in advance,

Paul

There are many 1000's of varieties of sugarcane, not all are planted, some are flowering, some not. The old Sugar Research Institute now SRA, trials and selects varieties for field performance, disease resistance etc and makes recommendations for each growing region. The Burdekin has one of the longest harvesting / crushing seasons, from late June often through into late November, early December, so varieties are also selected to provide continuity of harvest.

Sugarcane is also a multi year crop, from the first "planting" through harvest, then it re-shoots the next season which is the first "ratoon" crop. Five or more ratoon crops are not that unusual, however each season the "sugar content" drops off. It's a cost / return decision.

SRA_VarietyGuide_2021_Burdekin_F0.2_Web-1.pdf (sugarresearch.com.au)

Varieties - Sugar Research Australia

Thanks Mobyturns. I hadn't considered flowering vs non-flowering varieties.

I'd like to see the Burdekin River flowing. Went over the bridge in Ayr and on the way out of Townsville (I think before Charters Towers). A dry but sizeable river at both bridges.

A few time wasters for you Paul. It is a mighty river and one that rises very quickly. Its head waters start at the back of Ingham, Mt Garnet and draws water from as far south as the hinterland behind Bowen. In the past the highway from Townsville to Ayr could be cut for up to a month or even more per wet season, so the roadworks you saw were improving flood resilience. Mind you many of the sections its replacing were a vast improvement on what was there before.

Here's some drone footage of the Burdekin river at Macrossan on the Flinders Hwy well upstream of the Burdekin Dam.

ABC North Queensland - Burdekin River Drone Footage | Facebook

Townsville Bulletin - Water floods down Burdekin River | Facebook

Do a Google search for "burdekin river flood" images, and you will get a host of historical and recent images. The dam with 2 to 3 metres of water going over the wall is spectacular, and noisy. The before and after images are an eye opener.

Groper Creek Flooded & Burdekin River In Full Flow - YouTube

Burdekin Falls Dam | Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM Plan (nqdrytropics.com.au)

ABC Brisbane - Flooding on Burdekin River | Facebook

Burdekin and Haughton Flood Resilience Strategy | Queensland Reconstruction Authority (qra.qld.gov.au)

I have a couple of stories from colleagues about flood gauging on the Burdekin; Waldo of the Grandfather clock thread may also have heard some from his dad, who would have worked there I think.

One concerns a party that sand-bogged a Land Rover and trailer in the bed of the almost dry river. By the time they walked out and found a tractor that would pull them out, a flood had come down and all was gone. The person in charge of the party shot through and took a job in NSW. It was he who told me the story, and I later heard the same story from a bloke who had been a junior member of the party.

In the floods a couple of years ago, a party was gauging from the bridge. They were using some new equipment, so were videoing it, when a large crocodile came down the river and was caught on video.

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Originally Posted by AlexS

I have a couple of stories from colleagues about flood gauging on the Burdekin; Waldo of the Grandfather clock thread may also have heard some from his dad, who would have worked there I think.

One concerns a party that sand-bogged a Land Rover and trailer in the bed of the almost dry river. By the time they walked out and found a tractor that would pull them out, a flood had come down and all was gone. The person in charge of the party shot through and took a job in NSW. It was he who told me the story, and I later heard the same story from a bloke who had been a junior member of the party.

In the floods a couple of years ago, a party was gauging from the bridge. They were using some new equipment, so were videoing it, when a large crocodile came down the river and was caught on video.

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My sister said there were crocs in the Burdekin River during a flood. I was hoping to see a croc in the Ross River but apart from a quite convincing tree trunk in a "crocodile pose" only saw numerous freshwater tortoises and fish (archer fish, I think).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by homesy135

My sister said there were crocs in the Burdekin River during a flood. I was hoping to see a croc in the Ross River but apart from a quite convincing tree trunk in a "crocodile pose" only saw numerous freshwater tortoises and fish (archer fish, I think).

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They are there, just very secretive. You will have a better chance of seeing a freshwater croc above Aplin's Weir near the foot of Gleeson's Weir.