Sugarcane growers lead field in climate data

摘要

North Queensland sugarcane growers are leading the charge to put climate information to use in on-farm decision-making. Ingham canegrower Jeff Cantamessa, of Inglebrook Farming Company, says accessing and interpreting climate information via a four-year CSIRO case-study project have influenced planting practices on the family partnership's (including his father Visio and brother Errol) 450-hectare aggregation. "The problem we have here in the Herbert is that we grow rain-fed cane, with a bit of supplementary irrigation but not a lot, and we're in a climate where we can get 1200 millimetres of rain one month and in the same month next year we can get nothing," Cantamessa says. "The north tropical coast is one of the few places in the world where rainfall can vary so much in corresponding mouths from year to year." For the past three years, the district received 1250mm in November-December but this season the first substantial falls fell in mid-February. Cantamessa says the beauty of climateforecasting knowledge and information is in being able to adjust planting to suit expected conditions, beating in mind it is based on probabilities.