The Great Barrier Reef
Fertiliser, pesticides and sediment from cattle grazing and sugarcane production entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon are putting the reef’s long-term health at risk and decreasing its resilience to pressures such as climate change and ocean acidification… [read more]
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Latest updates
Call for applications
Grower organisations, industry advisory and extension services are invited to submit funding applications for regional and local projects. These projects will directly engage with canegrower communities to improve understanding of potential fertiliser and herbicide losses, and management practices, and improve extension services to reduce impacts on the reef. The adaptive management call is now closed.
Reef Impact Statement released
The $50 million, five-year Reef Protection Package of regulation and research commenced 1 January 2010 affecting more than 4000 cane farmers and 500 cattle graziers in the Wet Tropics, Burdekin and Mackay regions. Read an Impact Statement outlining benefits achieved by the package in the past two years.
Reviews to help canegrowers meet reef requirements
Reviews of record keeping, nutrient and herbicide management on cane properties have commenced. The reviews are designed to identify gaps and provide assistance to growers to meet legislative requirements… [more]
Interim suspension of diuron
The APVMA has suspended diuron use from 28 November 2011 to 31 March 2012. Limited use is still permitted in some situations, however, it cannot be used on sugarcane between 5 December 2011 and 31 March 2012… [more]
Research funding
$7.6 million has been allocated to 32 new research and support projects that aim to help graziers and cane farmers improve land management activities to reduce pollutant loss from their properties… [more]
Burdekin nutrient trials extended
Burdekin canegrowers registered as nutrient trial participants can apply up to 240 kg/N/ha to the end of 2011. DERM will advise participants this will be extended to the end of 2014… [more]
Mill mud
Farmers who use mill mud will not have to account for its nitrogen and phosphorus content in calculating their optimum amount of fertiliser in this financial year – that is, until 30 June 2012… [more]
- Record keeping
- Record keeping is necessary to understand the effectiveness of management practices… [read more]
- ERMPs
- An Environmental Risk Management Plan is an accredited set of actions to be undertaken to reduce the risk of sediment, fertiliser and chemicals leaving the property and entering the waters of the Great Barrier Reef… [read more]
- Fertiliser and soil testing
- A key requirement of the new legislation is to calculate and apply no more than the optimum amount of fertiliser on sugarcane crops to reduce the risk of over-fertilisation and nutrient run-off to the reef… [read more]