Meet Ricky Mio

Ricky Mio is a second-generation sugarcane farmer from North Queensland who understands the importance of good record-keeping and using data for business planning.

As a cane grower and livestock producer based at Clare in North Queensland, Mr Mio farms 16,000 hectares (ha) with 12,000ha under cane, and the rest used for livestock.

Mr Mio has recently become an advocate of digital record-keeping after meeting up with the department's Managing Pesticides project team.

The Managing Pesticides project is part of the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan that aims to protect 99% of aquatic species at the river mouth. The project undertakes agricultural chemical farm audits to ensure producers are aware of their obligations for chemical use and so better understand the best way to achieve the most from their chemical application.

Mr Mio explained that as part of this project, he was audited and initially it didn't go too well.  It wasn't that he wasn’t applying the chemicals correctly, it was just the record-keeping was not up to requirements. This spurred Mr Mio on to lift his game. He realised he needed to control the management of the farm better and show buyers and consumers the supply production chain.

Like many growers, he was keen to ensure he was using chemicals effectively and efficiently. He said everyone knows that farm chemicals are very expensive and there's no point wasting them.

Mr Mio said he was now using tools that allowed him to look at individual paddocks, and their chemical use and compare the information. By using these tools, he has better information to make decisions and can be more efficient in the way he sprays chemicals. He is also considering installing the best digital product into his tractors to ensure everything is tracked.

He explained that his farm staff understood where the creek was; they knew to look at which way the wind was blowing and to spray away from it. The big learning was how to record it better.

His team is now thinking about how it can digitise all record-keeping, going beyond just keeping chemical sheets in the storage areas. One solution is moving to a cloud-based program. Mr Mio has been looking at various options including the Farmacist app, a data management system that ensures the location of each record, plus all necessary data inputs for future use.

Farmacist records such things as:

• nutrients
• pesticides
• lime/gypsum
• mill mud/ash applications
• irrigation
• soil sample data
• sugarcane class/variety
• alternative crops
• water and tissue analysis, and more.

He said he was keenly aware there was a lot of misinformation out there and he asked the Managing Pesticides team to attend some shed meetings to explain what they are doing and why everyone should pay attention. The meetings proved successful and through discussion, growers are learning about how record-keeping can help them manage their businesses.

A pesticide project officer from the department Andrew Ygosse, proved a big help to Mr Mio, reinforcing that the pesticide compliance team is there to help growers improve their businesses and farming practices. By being there, being open to questions and listening to concerns, the team have built up relationships and trust with growers.

Mr Mio is aware of the importance of a healthy Great Barrier Reef and the public concern for it, and he is also looking at other things he can do to improve environmental outcomes, like using sediment ponds to slow the speed of the water running through the property and reduce sediment leaving the farm. His desire to improve and adapt is part of a bigger-picture view of his industry as well.