General News
8 May, 2026
Managing fallow cane paddocks
A SIMPLE but highly effective planting technique is transforming how local cane growers manage their fallow paddocks, with Innisfail farmers reporting strong results from a ‘low energy input system’ that boosts soil health while reducing labour, fuel use and soil disturbance.
Instead of cultivating paddocks after a cane crop reaches the end of its six-year life cycle, growers are now planting legume fallow crops directly beside the old cane row, using the existing cane bed.
The old cane can be sprayed out before planting with glyphosate, or left standing until the legumes reach around 30cm, then removed with a grass selective herbicide.
The method has proven particularly useful during the wet season, when traditional cultivation can be risky if heavy December rains arrive early.
Weeds are expected in this system, but they play a role in the process.
When the legumes and weeds are sprayed out at the end of the fallow, they break down together, returning organic matter and nutrients to the soil. This also helps reduce the long term ‘weed seed bank’, meaning fewer weeds germinate in the next cane crop.
Legume fallow crops offer another major advantage, the ability to ‘fix’ nitrogen from the atmosphere. Some of this nitrogen becomes available to the following cane plant crop, reducing fertiliser needs.
Over the past month, growers have been measuring selected fallow crops to assess how much organic nitrogen may be available for upcoming plantings.
While legumes have long been used as fallow crops, this newer low disturbance planting method is gaining popularity for its efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Growers have also been trialling new varieties, including crotalaria, known in Australia as sunn hemp, a hardy legume recognised by its small yellow flowers and widely grown in Brazil.
Read More: Innisfail