Cutting The Cane With Grower Michael Pelleri

Photo supplied: Michael Pelleri

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By Victoria Velton

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Welcome to the Cutting The Cane, a column where we have a chat with those supporting the backbone of the local economy: the farmers behind the sugar. This week Michael Pelleri, farmer and business owner answered our questions about the 2026 season.

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What stage is your paddock at now?
We have finished our fourth round of cutting and our farm is now currently sitting at 80% cut.

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What are you expecting from your crop this year?

Our crop yield has been disappointing this year although CCS has been above average. Consistent wet years have played a big part in determining the quality of our cane. Our farm does better in drier years.

What can you tell about the crop just by looking at it?

I can get an idea of the cane's overall health, growth, and maturity.  

Variety selection plays a large part in determining when to cut. We plant different varieties to enable cane to mature at different times throughout the cutting season to try to get the best sugar content and crop yield.  

This is also affected by how wet or dry paddock conditions are and the daily temperature.

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Has this season been different from what you expected at the start of the year?  

This year's crop has been more or less what I expected. Our farm is in a wet area and gets heavily affected by wet growing conditions and lack of strong sunlight at the start of the year.  

Low sugar pricing is concerning. Reduced tonnage and low pricing puts a strain on us as farmers and the community as a whole.

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Once this year's crop is finished, what will you be thinking about next?

Next year’s crop has been planted. I will be looking to get fertilising up to date and a plan for the fallow blocks for next year.  

Viability is a question that is thrown around a bit with low sugar prices, high fuel and fertiliser costs.  

But for now, I can go back and concentrate on my regular day job.

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