G'day, Choc Irwin here.
At Mullumbimby in northern NSW, our good mate Charlie Hambly has been growing his sugar cane with R.U.M.'s help for nearly ten years now.
Like most cane growers, Charlie has seen the good times and the bad times but unlike most cane growers Charlie has taken on another cane farm down the road at Tyagarah.
Well, didn't he cause a stir with his R.U.M.-grown cane?
They say that traffic on the Pacific Highway was backed up for a couple of kms because so many 'roadside farmers' were pulling up to have a sticky beak over Charlie's fence.
Meanwhile, Frank Stevens of 'Forrestview', Maryborough in Central Victoria, thought he'd give the R.U.M. a go on his wheat last year.
The result? 13.7% protein and bugger all screenings.
Frank has already included R.U.M. in his cropping plans for this year.
And he reckons that a few of his neighbours are going to join the R.U.M. fold as well.
Since the R.U.M. Rebellion visited him a couple of years ago, Jim Swift has added a winery, storage and cellar door facilities to his burgeoning 'Printhie' vineyard, near Orange in NSW.
Jim says his R.U.M.-fed Cabernet, Shiraz and Pinot Gris vines have been yielding 2-3 tonnes/acre of consistently high quality grapes.
"The current vintage is a beauty and now with our own winery and winemaker, Robert Black, we are really charging ahead", Jim says.
Jim uses R.U.M. as his main source of Nitrogen and added 3L/ha to his three fungicide sprays last Spring to encourage extra foliage growth to cover the heavy crop.
In Autumn a further 8L/ha R.U.M. will be applied and then, later in the year, 6L/ha at pre-budburst.
Jim's well on his way to producing 12,000 cases of happiness this season! Cheers
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