Sorghum, chick peas and mung beans are crops more associated with the Darling Downs than North West Queensland but that could be about to change as more ground goes under irrigation.
It is a vision AgForce Grains Board is addressing as it gathered in Julia Creek last week with meetings with the Flinders River Agricultural Precinct group and farm visits scheduled to look at the development of the grains industry in the north.
AgForce Grains President Wayne Newton said their regional manager Paul Burke and local landholders had asked the board to come up and have a look at their country and their potential and their issues.
“We managed to schedule one of our grains board meetings and while we were there we took the opportunity to meet some of the farmers and potential farmers in that area,” Mr Newton said.
Mr Newton said the area had potential for grains.
“Water aside, and there’s certainly issues there with allocations with a lot of people hanging out for some more water, you look at some of the other constraints you start talking about logistics,” he said.
“Farmers in southern Queensland west of Roma, they are carting their grains further to port than what you would say from Richmond to Townsville, so distances are possible,” he said.
“One of the advantages in the north is you can run a triple roadtrain right through to the port.”
Mr Newton said they hadn’t explored the railway option yet.
“You’d probably have to get an industry up and running before there would be a demand for rail,” he said.
“There would still be issues to address at the port but we understand talking to the growers there has been some ongoing discussion with the Port of Townsville and they are also keen to see other commodities come to their port.”
Mr Newton said they had discussed with the Grains Research Development Corporation who were starting trial work with the Department of Agriculture in the north in sorghum, mung beans, chick peas and wheat.
“It’s quite obvious you can grow crops up there,” he said.
“There will be agronomic issues and there may have to be more work in breeding areas, it’s quite a different environment.”
Mr Newton said the likely different seasons in the north could be advantageous to the industry.
“That opens up possibilities, you can manage the difference in the seasons, there might be a way to move contractors around,” he said.
Mr Newton said they were keen to hear more from the FRAG and they would continue to look at the issue of water allocations with government reps.
“One of the advantages of the Flinders River over say the Gilbert River is vegetation management,” he said.
“A lot of it doesn’t have to have any substantial land clearance, or even a lot of land development, pretty much go straight in there and crop”.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
