RUSSELL Ford is on a mission. The manager of SunRice's research arm, Rice Research Australia, is on a mission to develop rice varieties and farming systems which can be grown successfully in Northern Australia.
But he is not on his own. He has joined forces with a canegrower in Mackay, cotton growers near Springsure and farmers on the Ord River and near Katherine.
The Queensland Country Life travelled to one of these properties, Arcturus Downs about 40km from Springsure, to see how the trial was going.
To be fair, the first-time irrigation attempt - which is being led on the ground by Arcturus Downs irrigation manager Greg Barnett and property manager Sam Bradford - was a bit of a flop.
But the 2009 crop of aerobic rice was cracking along. That was until some of the biggest floods to hit the property in recent decades submerged it for about six weeks this February.
During this time, the only way to traverse much of the property was by boat.
However things are shaping up well for this coming summer, with a good moisture profile and a much smaller planting of about 10ha planned.
Mr Ford said the goal was to develop systems which could make rice a viable alternative crop in northern Australia, as a kind of back-up for when southern crops failed.
"We started with (Arcturus Downs) two years ago," he said.
"We're trying to work on developing a rice system that could possibly work in conjunction with other rotations including cotton, corn or whatever it needs to be to fit in with a farming system," he said.
Mr Ford said they were working with aerobic rice, which doesn't have to be submerged with water all the time, to dry and deal with pests and water shortages.
"This is to try and avoid some of the problems they've had before like magpie, geese and ducks," he said.
"We're looking at doing a varietal assessment across the northern end to see what varieties adapt better to the environment.
"We're having to learn as we go - there are not that many places around the world that grow aerobic rice. It's (Arcturus Downs) is a great site to not just add varieties but to work on the whole system."
He said the beds were in place, there was a fantastic irrigation layout and Mr Barnett was very diverse in his approach.
Mr Ford said the 2008 planting of about 150ha yielded about five tonnes/ha but had issues with herbicide, watering, timing and nutrition. "It wasn't brilliant," he said.
"Obviously we're growing a variety from the south and it's not ideally suited. We've got a few things against us.
"I think the long-term goal would be to have a system that's reliable for farmers to use if they want to use it as their rotation."
He saw it as a back-up in very dry years when growers were guessing that prices may rise and that might trigger growers in northern Australia to take it up.
One issue to taking it up as a rotational crop was distance to an existing hulling system and associated transport costs.
"At the moment for instance we're working in the Ord River. There's a fair, or a reasonable starter crop and there's a mobile hulling system going up there to deal with that," Mr Ford said.
"I think it's a matter of wait and see how it adapts; see how the farmers take it up and how the marketing will pan out. The processing side of it certainly needs to be taken into account."
While the crop at Arcturus Downs was submerged, a gene called the sub-one gene is now being considered for introduction as it gives submergence resistance - something which may have saved the crop.
"It was very frustrating because we'd done everything and worked very hard and then the floods came and that was a disappointment," Mr Ford said. He said this summer there would be a maximum planting of 10ha on Arcturus.
"There will be a lot of trial work in that - different varieties, different nutritional applications, different herbicide applications," he said.
"Plant timing is the other variable. We're looking at three planting times and just seeing what effect that has."
Arcturus Downs is a mixed-enterprise with about 6000ha of dryland and 1000ha of cropping country, with the remainder of the 20,000ha devoted to cattle.
The Orion and Comet rivers traverse the property and there is 13,000 megalitres of water storage in four ring tanks. There is 1300ha of sunflowers, 1500ha of sorghum, 2000ha of chickpea and 1200ha of wheat in the dryland section, while the irrigated country - after being extensively rebuilt following the floods - is largely fallowed for the upcoming 600ha cotton plant.
"We had a laser bucket going flat out from May 10 until now, going 16 hours a day re-lasering all the paddocks," Mr Barnett said.
Mr Barnett said kilometres of levy banks had to be entirely re-established on the property following the floods.
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