TOPICAL TIPS

With the welcome rains that have fallen across much of the industry, growers have been busy planting, fertilising, fighting weeds, and even harvesting in the rain! Here are a few things to keep in mind for November and December.

Final harvests and carryover decisions

• If your local mill has not yet closed, be sure to get your crop off before it does so. Avoid a situation where you will need to manage unplanned carryover fields.
• Contact your local Pest & Disease team to inspect your carryover fields, and harvest any fields that may become eldana problems during the off season. Don’t be caught with eldana-infested cane in the off-crop!
• Any fields with > 20% of the stalks having flowered, should not be carried over if possible.

Weed Control

• Your farm may soon be closing for year-end break. Pay attention to weed control, especially on recently planted/ratooning fields. Don’t give your January self a headache with tall, hard-to-control weeds!
• Follow-up on problem weeds, particularly creeping grasses.
• In longer-cycle cane, monitor winter weeds in last season’s cane.

Prepare your replant fields for 2025

• Start planning your replant fields:
  • Spray off your fields when the cane has reach knee height.
  • Remember that your 2025 farm nursery fields need to be free of volunteers for 6-9 months – if you’re going to replant in Sept 2025, you need to have killed your last volunteer by January 2025!

• For commercial replant fields, plan for a volunteer-free fallow of at least three months.
• Check on the effectiveness of chemical stool eradication. In sugarcane, nobody loves a volunteer.
• In high mosaic risk areas (e.g. KZN midlands), don’t plant between 1 November and 1 February.

Pests & Diseases

• Use manual or chemical roguing to clean smut-infested fields.
• Malelane / Komati: be on the lookout for outbreaks of Black Maize Beetle, as happened in 2023. Be on the lookout and contact SASRI Biosecurity (P&D) if you have any queries.

General husbandry and maintenance

• Now is a good time to plant a summer green manure crop.
• A tour of the farm during heavy rain is the best way of observing weaknesses in field layouts and where maintenance to roads and structures is required.
• Start planning your programme for next season.
• Consider staff training: do your staff require Health & Safety supervisors’ courses, or drivers’ training? Contact Shukela Training Centre for more information www.shukelatrainingcentre.co.za.