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The sugar cane crushing season is over and the results are generally pleasing.
CJ Ord River Sugar Mill logistics manager Wayne Paul said the mill had crushed 398,511 tonnes of cane to produce about 46,500 tonnes of sugar.
The sugar content or poll was 14.39.
The amount of cane crushed was slightly down on last year, but this was because there were less hectares of cane produced.
The crushed cane yield per hectare was 117 tonnes and the mill averaged processing 116 tonnes an hour.
Wayne said the mill had improved its reliability over the previous season by 10 percent, with between 10 and 12 percent downtime, which was close to the industry average.
The season lasted 25 weeks.
When the Kimberley Echo spoke to Wayne last week, he was enjoying a short (if slightly chilly) spell in Perth before returning to Kununurra.
For cane farmers, it's still a battle fairly close to the wind.
They expect to get between $17 and $18 a tonne for their cane this year, when last year they got $12 and, in the past, as little as $8.
But this is not all rosy - higher fuel costs and freight costs for fertilizer, along with higher labour costs have cut back any windfall. |
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