This week's roundup: Smart fertility for forage success, Introducing Crop Input Finance, Greeneye Technology Adds, Labour Softens, Markets Shift and Farmers Stay Sharp, But Pressure Hasn’t Gone Away, Gold Coast canefarmers, and more updates. Plus, fresh listings, auction dates, and more from across Australia's ag sector. Let's get into it

Field Fodder: Soil fertility directly impacts farm profitability.

Soil fertility plays a crucial role in forage production and can directly impact farm profitability. Yet, when budgets tighten, growers tend to cut back on fertility expenditures first. This can negatively impact forage quality, yield, plant health, and long-term stand persistence. Shortcuts in fertility can increase costs long-term if you need to purchase feed or re-establish the forage stand. Close attention to targeted nutrient applications can maintain forage productivity while limiting excess input costs.

Regardless of the forage species planted, it is essential to account for the significant nutrient removal from the field via forage biomass. For example, each ton of alfalfa harvested removes 13 pounds of phosphorus and 60 pounds of potash. For perennial crops like alfalfa, maintaining optimal fertility is vital for winter survival, making effective nutrient management even more important.

Step one in managing soil fertility is conducting routine soil testing. It is recommended to perform tests at least every three years, especially before planting any perennial crops, such as alfalfa. Soil test reports provide valuable information, including pH levels, phosphorus and potassium concentrations. Soil test recommendations guide where fertilizer dollars are best spent. Ideally, it is best to enhance soil fertility before crop establishment, requiring only maintenance fertilizer applications throughout the life of the stand.

Forage crops are sensitive to pH levels and may require adjustments to optimize nutrient uptake based on crop species. Legumes like alfalfa prefer a pH range of 6.5 to 7. Soil pH levels outside of this range can limit the plant’s ability to fix nitrogen, potentially resulting in nitrogen deficiency. Correcting pH takes time. Soils with pH below the optimum level for the crop being grown require lime application to raise pH into the acceptable range. Lime applications should be made at least six months before planting. Alternatively, some Wisconsin soils have higher pH due to proximity to limestone bedrock. This may require applications of elemental sulfur or aluminum sulfate to reduce pH. Soil bacteria must convert elemental sulfur to sulfate, which also requires a significant lead time before planting.

Key plant nutrients

When pH levels are optimal, focus turns to key plant nutrients. Although it is not economical to optimize all the macro and micronutrients that plants require, we typically focus on the following:

The University of Wisconsin’s Nutrient Application Guidelines for Field, Vegetable, and Fruit Crops in Wisconsin (A2809) helps identify forage crop removal rates and optimal application rates for many important crop nutrients. While it can be tempting to skimp on fertilizer applications this season, limiting plant nutrients can be detrimental to yield, plant health, and persistence, costing you more long-term.

Forage fertility management chart
Creating a timeline for forage fertility management helps reduce swings in costly nutrient application needs. This is a soil fertility timeline for corn/forage rotations. Source: Penn State Extension

Gartman is the regional Extension crops educator for Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Ozaukee, and Washington Counties.

Elders Finance Crop Input Finance provides growers with practical, seasonal finance to fund essential inputs such as seed, fertiliser and crop protection products throughout the season. With up to 14 months to manage cash flow and repayment not required until maturity, the product supports commercial broadacre and horticultural farming operations looking for financial flexibility.

Crop Input Finance is a seasonal facility designed to help you manage your upfront input costs throughout the production cycle. Once your application is approved, you can use the facility for eligible cropping inputs including crop protection products, fertiliser, and seed.

With no deposits or interim repayments, the facility aligns with seasonal activity by offering a maximum 14-month term. The full advance amount is repaid by direct debit at maturity.  You can work with our Financial Services Manager throughout the season in relation to the cropping finance facility supporting your operational needs. 

The facility is intended to complement existing cash flow planning and banking arrangements, to provide flexibility when planning your annual input purchases. 

Elders has been supporting Australian farmers since 1839. We understand there are green years and lean years and that you often need a little help to bridge them. 

Elders Finance products are designed to not only keep your agribusiness going, but growing. 

Unlike the big banks, our network of branches across Australia is expanding, so help isn't far away. Many of our staff run their own farms too, so they speak your language and will help you find the financial solution you need. 

When a sprayer goes down at 4 p.m., and rain is coming the next day, herbicide savings don’t matter much if a farmer can’t get the machine running again.

That kind of in-season service is one reason Greeneye Technology is adding local dealers as it expands in the Upper Midwest. Through a new partnership with IntelliFarms Northern Division, farmers in South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, and surrounding areas will gain local access to demonstrations and sales, with installation and service support expected to follow.

The partnership is part of Greeneye’s move beyond its direct-to-farmer sales model as it builds a broader dealer network.

“We will have more dealer announcements to come,” said Keith Crow, general manager of North America for Greeneye Technology.

IntelliFarms’ background in grain bin automation, monitoring, controls, and electrical work gives the company an existing service infrastructure to build on, said Jared Holland, CEO of IntelliFarms Northern Division and a fifth-generation farmer.

“When a farmer calls and says, ‘I can’t get this working,’ it’s our job to stop what we’re doing, to go out there and service, and get what we need fixed,” Holland said.

Holland said the goal is to get a farmer’s system running again within 24 hours, assuming needed parts are available.

IntelliFarms will initially handle Greeneye sales and support, Holland and Crow said. Employees are expected to train on installations this winter, to eventually handle those as well.

Holland said demonstrations will be an important part of the partnership, particularly given the investment required to add targeted spraying technology.

“I don’t expect a farmer to spend a significant amount of money on something simply because I tell them it works,” Holland said. “I want growers to see it operate.”

Greeneye is providing IntelliFarms with a Greeneye-equipped sprayer for farmer demonstrations this fall.

Greeneye’s retrofit system uses cameras and artificial intelligence to detect weeds and apply non-residual herbicides only where they’re needed. Its dual-tank, dual-line configuration also allows farmers to broadcast residual herbicides while targeting non-residual products in the same pass.

Crow said preliminary results this season are tracking near last year’s 82% reduction in non-residual herbicide use, although actual savings vary with weed pressure and other factors.

Greeneye has developed an ROI calculator that weighs acres, crop mix, and herbicide spending to estimate potential savings for an individual farm.

Holland said he ran the numbers on his own farm before agreeing to the partnership and also discussed the technology with several of his customers.

“We want to understand what the system is doing, take a look at their operations, their economics, and we wanna make sure that it makes sense on the farm,” Holland said.

Australia's agricultural trading platform. Buy and sell with confidence. Part of the REALM Group ecosystem.

This week has delivered an important shift in the finance picture for Australian farmers.

New employment data showed Australia’s unemployment rate rising to 4.5%, its highest level in almost five years. For the Reserve Bank, that takes some pressure off an immediate rate hike, with the labour market now showing clearer signs of slowing. The cash rate remains at 4.35%, and while another increase is not off the table, the chance of an urgent move has cooled.

For farmers, that creates a mixed but useful message: borrowing costs remain high, but the market is starting to see signs that rate pressure may be stabilising.

Across agriculture, grain markets have been active. Northern feedgrain bids have softened despite weaker production prospects, while southern markets have firmed. Wheat sentiment has improved on renewed Black Sea supply concerns, and buyers are showing more interest in nearby Australian grain. Canola remains well supported, helped by oilseed demand and global supply risk.

Fuel security is also back in focus, with government consultation now underway around low-carbon liquid fuels and the role Australian feedstocks such as canola could play. For farmers, that could create longer-term opportunities, but in the short term diesel and freight costs remain major pressure points.

Weather remains split. Grain regions had a mostly dry week, but rainfall forecasts are pointing to useful falls across parts of south-eastern Australia, which would support winter crops and pasture.

In this environment, Pay In Time Finance continues helping farmers refinance existing debt, reduce repayment pressure, unlock equity and structure machinery or equipment finance around seasonal income.

The message this week is clear: rate pressure may be easing, but margins still need protecting. The strongest operators are staying liquid, informed and ready to move.

Gold Coast sugarcane farmers are in limbo after the owner of one of Queensland's oldest mills told them it will stop crushing their cane.

The Rocky Point sugar mill at Woongoolba, on the northern Gold Coast, has been owned by the Heck family since it was established in 1878.

About 50 canegrowers were issued a notice from David Heck, the governing director, advising that the mill would terminate their cane supply agreement at the end of the 2027 season.

Rocky Point District Canegrowers chair Greg Zipf said growers were devastated by the decision.

"Under our contractual arrangements with the mill, they have a period, like a certain date, that they actually have to give us notice if they were going to extend the agreement or they were going to terminate their agreement," Mr Zipf said.

"Their agreement with us still remains in place for the 2026 season and 2027 season, but at the end of 2027, that will be it."

Mr Zipf said the notice did not provide a detailed explanation for the decision.

"There was no reason, which is very, very odd," he said.

"Look, it's devastating, it's very sad."

Mr Heck refused to confirm whether the mill would permanently close.

He told the ABC he would be able to provide a better update on its future in September.

The Rocky Point region produces up to 290,000 tonnes of sugarcane each year.

Mr Zipf said the impact of losing the mill would have a "ripple effect" across the wider Gold Coast community.

"It's going to be felt across certainly all the families that currently grow cane and rely wholly and solely on cane and, further to that, will be all those businesses that supply goods into the industry itself … it'll be felt far and wide," he said.

Mr Zipf said the closure was not entirely unexpected, given the number of sugar mills that had shut across Queensland over the past two decades.

The most recent was Mossman Mill in Far North Queensland, which went into liquidation in 2024, leaving farmers in financial and logistical limbo over the future of agriculture in the region.

"Sugar milling is a volume game, and they need tonnes through their factory to make it pay, and the Rocky Point Sugar Mill is no different in that sense," Mr Zipf said.

"It's got to a point where it's lost its critical mass, and there are several factors why that's happened … and that sugar mill will have to close."

Rather than abandon the industry, Rocky Point growers are now looking for ways to keep growing cane once their local mill stops crushing.

A working group involving cane growers and other industry stakeholders is investigating whether cane could be transported to Condong Sugar Mill in northern New South Wales, about 100 kilometres away.

"We've actually engaged some trailer manufacturers to potentially look at the most efficient way that we can cart the highest possible payload that we can to New South Wales," Mr Zipf said.

"But look, we're not going to lie down and throw our hands in the air and say, 'We're done.' We're going to be proactive about it and see if we can come up with a resolution."

Owen Menkens, chairman of Canegrowers, said the organisation was working with affected growers to explore their options.

"Sugarcane is a big employer in both the milling sector and in the growing sector," Mr Menkens said.

"It keeps a lot of people employed in a lot of different ways, and I think it'll definitely affect the Gold Coast community.

"It's obviously distressing, this period, but I have faith in the growers to be able to come up with a solution."

The uncertainty surrounding the mill comes at a critical time for the wider Rocky Point region.

The cane growing area is sandwiched between the Gold Coast and Logan and is one of the last major areas of undeveloped land south of Brisbane.

Developers have expressed interest in buying the cane fields in previous decades as the sugar industry has become less viable.

Gold Coast deputy mayor and area councillor Mark Hammel said planning for the future of the district was now a priority.

"The commercial realities facing both the mill and the industry are well understood," Cr Hammel said.

"While we all hope to see the strongest possible outcome for growers, we also have a responsibility to prepare for what comes next.

"Our focus is on ensuring any transition is managed in a way that gives farming families certainty, protects their livelihoods wherever possible, and preserves the region's rich agricultural heritage."

(RGA26016) (REALM Group Australia Pty Ltd) The Original Australia-wide Multi Vendor Auction Group

Starts: 02/09/2026, 08:00 am
Ends: 03/09/2026, 08:00 pm

You already know this: Run a business long enough and you get very good at knowing where a conversation is going.

A customer starts explaining a problem, and you've heard it before. Someone shows you a piece of work, and you can already see what needs fixing. A supplier suggests something you've tried twice. Sometimes you know the answer before they've finished the question.

That's experience, and it's valuable. Some twenty years or so of pattern recognition, doing exactly what it's meant to do.

But experience also creates shortcuts. Sometimes we get so good at recognising the pattern that we stop checking whether we've understood the situation.

We got caught doing exactly that this week.

The team ran into the edge of it this week. We were asked to review some work that sat comfortably inside our expertise. We found problems, documented them, and recommended what should change.

Technically, there was nothing unusual about the exercise.

What we hadn't accounted for was everything sitting underneath it. Who'd put time into it. What had already been tried. What a detailed list of problems would sound like to the person who made it.

The assessment held up. Our read of the room didn't.

This happens everywhere in business.

You inherit a process from whoever ran the place before you, and it looks backwards until you learn it exists because of a supplier who no longer does. Your spouse runs their half of the business differently to how you'd run it. A customer asks what you'd recommend, and you already know the answer before they've finished the question.

None of that means the instinct is wrong. Most of the time, it isn't.

Before acting on the answer you already have, ask what's underneath it.

Why is it done this way? What's already been tried? What constraint am I not seeing?

Most of the time, your first instinct will probably hold up. That's what experience is for. Occasionally, one more piece of context changes the answer entirely.

Experience teaches you to recognise the pattern. The questions tell you whether this time is different.

If you're noticing this in your own operation, worth a conversation → [email protected] 

G’day  REALM Readers,

Rightio... What’s the worst road you’ve ever driven on?

We asked the RFTTE community, and hundreds of nominations came rattling in. The Bruce Highway was the runaway winner, or loser, followed by the Gibb River Road, Plenty Highway, Tanami Road and some properly punishing tracks across remote Australia.

Members recalled corrugations that “had shadows in them”, roads so rough a Fitbit recorded 15,000 steps while sitting in the car, and one bloke who reckoned he felt every bump on the Gibb River Road, despite being in a helicopter!

We’ve ranked the top 20 and included some of the funniest descriptions and wildest road-trip yarns from RFTTE members...

SeeAustralia’s 20 worst roads: https://rfttejobs.com/blog/worst-roads-in-australia/

Hooroo for now,

Hooroo for now,
Simon Cheatham
Founder, RFTTE - The Online Campfire
0417 277 488 | [email protected]

Robbie is definitely 'that guy!' He's even got his own cartoon character.