Fourth-generation peanut farmer Ben Rackemann was initially hesitant when his father suggested experimenting with sugarcane, a crop many in Queensland were abandoning. However, when the local mill offered financial incentives, Rackemann decided to trial the new crop on his Coalstoun Lakes property, located 300 kilometers north of Brisbane. Just over a year later, the results speak for themselves, with test outcomes highlighting the high-quality potential of the towering stalks.
Rackemann’s venture into sugarcane farming comes at a time when the industry faces significant challenges, including declining plantings and reduced investment. Yet, he remains one of the few farmers not ready to give up on sugarcane’s potential.
Incentives and Initial Success
Rackemann’s sugarcane crop is among the first in his small community, destined for processing at the Isis Central Sugar Mill, 70 kilometers away. In 2024, the mill offered farmers $500 per hectare to plant sugarcane on land not used for the crop in the past three years. Craig Wood, the mill’s chief executive, noted that while supply has increased due to the closure of nearby mills, the industry’s future remains uncertain.
“There’s been a major change since 2001 with the advent of macadamias and so forth,” Wood explained. “We have been down to a very low ebb, but now we’re starting to see a little bit extra planted. It will never reach what it did back in the early 2000s, but it can still be a sustainable business in the district.”
Rackemann is currently trialing five sugarcane varieties on both irrigated and dry land across 46 hectares, with the harvest slated for next year. “We’re still learning, but it’s exceeded all expectations,” he said. The irrigated cane yielded about 110 to 120 tonnes per hectare, while the dry land matched the mill’s 10-year average of 80 to 90 tonnes per hectare.
Community Response and Broader Implications
The success of Rackemann’s sugarcane has not gone unnoticed in the community. Neighbor Kerry Dove, facing challenges with his traditional crops due to invasive pests and adverse weather, has also begun experimenting with sugarcane on 4 hectares of unirrigated land.
“We’re hoping that this will work,” Dove said. “We’ll just wait and see the tonnes per hectare we get and the dollars per hectare we make.”
If successful, Dove plans to expand his sugarcane planting to an additional 30 hectares. “You can’t rely on incentives all the time, so you’ve got to make it pay on its own merits,” he added. “In the next couple of years, there will be more trials and a little bit more confidence may build in the area.”
Industry Perspectives and Future Prospects
Dan Galligan, chief executive of the grower representative group Canegrowers, highlighted that over the past two decades, adverse weather and poor mill performance have driven many away from sugarcane farming. However, diversification projects, such as using cane for biofuels, have helped slow this trend.
“We’re seeing places expand out of what might have been horticultural crops back into cane,” Galligan noted.
While planting incentives are common, Galligan emphasized that the trial at Coalstoun Lakes is unique. “Brand new, 100 percent never growing cane on the land before or farmers having never grown cane is relatively unusual,” he said.
Overcoming Challenges and Looking Ahead
Isis mill’s productivity services officer, Anthony LaRocca, has been instrumental in adapting sugarcane cultivation to the unique conditions of the area, which is 150 kilometers from the coast and presents challenges such as frost, lack of water, and volcanic rock. LaRocca has worked closely with farmers to determine optimal planting windows and suitable cane varieties.
“That region is different from what is a common cane-growing area, so we didn’t want to elevate their expectations beyond what we thought was capable,” LaRocca said. “It’s new to all of us. We know cane, but we don’t necessarily know how cane is going to go in that area.”
The trial is also offering new insights into soil and moisture conservation methods. “They’ve been successful farmers for a long time,” LaRocca remarked. “I don’t want to go up there and tell them: ‘This is the rule book’ … we’ve adapted to suit their conditions.”
As the first official harvest approaches, the community is preparing to use a mix of hired specialist equipment and modified machinery to transport the sugarcane to the mill. “We’ve got a lot of learning to do between now and that point, but we’ll just take it a year at a time and see how it ends up,” Rackemann concluded.
