Harvest Management Meeting Brief

HARVEST MANAGEMENT MEETING BRIEF

Collectives attended harvest management meeting on Thursday 29th August. Notes from meeting included:

Factory Performance

Invicta Mill
• Feeding station conveyor belt repairs
• Diffuser chain derailed off sprocket twice – major stops – corrective measures applied, monitoring increased.
• Scraper plate flipped.
• Opportunistic cleaning carried out during major stops.

Pioneer Mill
• Intake water spray pond pump failure impacted crush rates recently – repaired and back in service.

Kalamia Mill
• Stack repairs complete on Tuesday’s scheduled stop.
• Concerns for cracking in mill cheeks – visual investigations undertaken – no evidence found – monitoring vibration
• Ash sluice pipe repairs undertaken – establishing understanding of failure mechanism and prevention
• Slat conveyor side plate damage/fouling, damaged slats that required repairs, skirting has been damaged as well.

Inkerman Mill
• B2 Mill feeding issues identified – foreign object jammed in mill.
• Extended stop to repair bagasse conveyor tracking mechanism
• Exposed to Ergon faults blacking out factory

Incidents / near hits / derailments

Inkerman – Farm tractor drove out on Osborne Junction line and hit the Koolkuna loco

Crush Finish Dates

There are no official finish dates at present but at this stage end of crush will be approximately mid-November. This is subject to weather and factory stops.

Rail Corridor

Concerns were raised about harvesting contractors and farm vehicles often entering and driving out in front of locos while both parties are working in the same corridor. There are some concerns from harvesting contractors about where loco crews walk. Haulouts and farm vehicles can be travelling at a reasonable speed which is a concern for Wilmar employees that are working in this corridor. All parties need to be aware and take care when working in these areas.

Early Suppliers

Logistics/Traffic Officers often ask early supplier contractors on mill maintenance/clean days to start harvesting operations later than normal. Most contractors are continuing to cut early which negatively impacts on increase in cut to crush times. read more

COMMUNITY RALLY – A CALL TO ALL FARMERS

COMMUNITY RALLY – A CALL TO ALL FARMERS

Firstly a big thank to members who took the time to attend the rally in Townsville this morning. Rally was well represented by a broad spectrum of agriculture with some attendees travelling considerable distance to ensure the message was loud and clear in voicing our opposition to the proposed additional reef protection laws currently under review by the incumbent Qld Government. It was a magnificent site with a sea of green challenging the State Government to DEFER THE BILL, CHECK THE SCIENCE, STOP HARMING QLD FARMERS. Guest speakers included Dale Last local member for the Burdekin, Senator Susan Macdonald, Dr Peter Ridd, Mackay Regional Councillor and Green Shirts Movement coordinator Martin Bella and a passionate Agforce CEO, Michael Guerin.

There was an extensive media presence at the event including Channels 9 & 7, The Mercury, Townsville Bulletin.

For Qld Country Life article click here.

For Agforce Michael Guerin’s speech click here

Les Elphinstone
Manager KCGO