It’s official. The Central Queensland crush is over for another year. This week Mackay Sugar announced the last of the mills had finished for the year while Plane Creek Mill finished on 25 November.

Mackay Area Committee Chairman, Joseph Borg, said on a positive note for growers all the Mackay Sugar crop had successfully been taken off. More

A fortnight later than last year but Plane Creek’s 2019 cane crop has now been crushed, with Wilmar Sugar mill at Sarina recording the finishing time as 27 minutes past midnight this morning.

Chairman of CANEGROWERS Mackay and Plane Creek mill area grower, Kevin Borg, said growers would be relieved to finish the harvest, even if later than the ideal due to a few technical issues at the mill. More

In recent weeks we have witnessed a public debate on the accuracy of reef science and the real condition of the Great Barrier Reef. Increased regulation of agriculture is seen by activists and government to be the panacea for threats to the Reef – but is it? Prof. Peter Ridd has called for an independent science panel to remove any ambiguity in published science. More

CANEGROWERS Mackay Area Committee Chairman Paul Schembri tonight welcomed news that a 75 per cent majority of grower/shareholders has approved the proposal put by German sugar producer, Nordzucker AG, to secure the future of Mackay Sugar.  More

With the Extraordinary General Meeting of voting shareholders and the general meeting of investment shareholders to consider Nordzucker’s proposed transaction on next week, one grower, Lindsay Williams at Bakers Creek, has well and truly made up his mind to vote ‘yes’ and he hopes other growers do so, too. More

Untimely rain over the past few days has cast a grey pall over this year’s sugarcane harvest in the Mackay/Plane Creek regions. More

The State Government is patting itself on the back for giving farmers and businesses an extra year to move to standard electricity tariffs. However, CANEGROWERS Mackay Chairman Kevin Borg argues in this week's Rural Weekly that this is just "kicking the can down the road" without a reduction in electricity prices for irrigators. More

If you've got great cane, then please show it at the Mackay Show next week! AND BENEFIT YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOL. More

CANEGROWERS Mackay CEO Kerry Latter has expressed disappointment at the fact that prices for power for irrigation remain high and unchanged under the Queensland Competition Authority's determination for electricity prices released today. More

In a letter published in the Daily Mercury today, CANEGROWERS Mackay CEO Kerry Latter has called for the implementation of the blueprint laid out by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to fix electricity prices and restore Australia’s competitive advantage. More

CANEGROWERS Mackay Area Committee Chairman Paul Schembri has thanked the Queensland Government for its promise to support Mackay Sugar Limited with an investment of up to $14 million towards securing Nordzucker’s proposal for Mackay Sugar. More

CANEGROWERS Mackay today congratulated growers in the Plane Creek district for their success in the Productivity Awards presented last night at a friendly family gather of 160 people at Carmila Hall.  More

Chairman Kevin Borg has told the Daily Mercury that with only a week away from the beginning of the 2019 crushing season in the central region comes the need for the public to become more aware of safety hazards including an increased amount of traffic on local roads with activity in rural and some residential areas. More

CANEGROWERS Mackay invites growers to visit the organisation's marquee at the Ag Trade Expo at Wests on 10-11 May to discuss an irrigation efficiency audit for their farm. MORE

Chairman Kevin Borg writes in the Rural Weekly this week that a Federal Court decision determining that marine scientist, Prof. Peter Ridd, had been unlawfully dismissed by James Cook University (JCU) in north Queensland for speaking out against his colleagues comes at an interesting time in the debate about how to sustain the health of the Great Barrier Reef. More

CANEGROWERS Mackay welcomes Queensland Youth Week this week (3-14 April) and celebrates the positive contribution made by young people on cane farms in the Mackay/Plane Creek community. More

In this week's Rural Weekly column, CANEGROWERS Mackay Chairman, Kevin Borg, points out the progress the district's growers have made over recent decades in preventing the movement of sediment from farms into surrounding waterways through trash blanketing and stool splitting. However, the Queensland Government does not acknowledge this but seeks to increase the regulatory regime on farmers through the current Bill before the Parliament. More