TULLY Sugar brought Far North Queensland’s cane crushing season to a close this week, with most of the mills in the region breaking records.
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It was the first time in 41 years that the crush at Tully continued into the new year, where just under 2.9 million tonnes were crushed, with an average CCS of 12.81.
Of the MSF mills, South Johnstone Mill’s 1.7 million tonne-crush was an all-time record, with an average CCS of 11.89. Mulgrave Mill crushed its fourth highest crop on record, with 1.443 million tonnes crushed and an average CCS of 12.45.
Tableland Mill – which became the first mill in the region to finish crushing in mid-November - crushed 638,801 tonnes, with an average CCS of 14.20.
Mossman Mill crushed just over 1.2 million tonnes in 2015.
Tully Sugar Limited general manager Barry Dun said the 2015 crush exceeded the mill’s previous crush record by nearly 460,000 tonnes.
“It was a remarkable effort,” Mr Dun said. “The reason for that is that crop grew so well.
“Our average yield is 85 tonnes of cane per hectare and in 2015 it was 100 tonnes per hectare.
“That is great news but it does take a while to chew through it.”
Ironically, the Tully area – one of the wettest in far north Queensland – had fine weather over the Christmas break.
“Areas north, south and west of us got rain but somehow we were sparred that,” Mr Dun said. “We are delighted that in many ways it was drought breaking for people that needed it and we managed not to be washed out as well.”
Mr Dun said quality was up on the 2014, however, the amount of extraneous matter in the cane was still an issue.
Phil Miskin, general manager of MSF North Queensland Operations, said the crops at Mulgrave and South Johnstone grew out significantly during the season.
“The crop didn’t look good before the season but the rain we had in winter and mild winter conditions led to the crop growing on down the coast quite significantly right through from June to December,” Mr Miskin said.
He said South Johnstone’s $16 million upgrade which was designed to increase capacity at the mill performed well.
The mills have now turned their efforts to maintenance.
“We spent about 30 seconds celebrating our success in 2015 before turning our attention to the big job in front of us,” Mr Dun said.
“Normally at this time of the year we would have finished the crush, allowed people to take some leave and commenced our maintenance program.
“We haven’t done any of that. The mill has worked hard so we need to do some work to get it ready.”
