"THE mills aren't breaking any records, but they're going pretty well.”

It's a sentiment being echoed from as far north as Calen and Pindi Pindi, up through the Pioneer Valley and out along the reaches of Oakenden, Sunnyside and Marwood.

It's also how grower Les Trueman and his son Brad summed things up about the crushing so far.

For the Truemans, cane farming is a family business. Les, and his wife Liza, along with their sons and daughter - Brad, Michelle and Scott - have land under cane at Oakenden, Te Kowai and Marwood.

The weather is the biggest factor affecting the 2018 crop.

"In October last year, things were looking really good,” Les Trueman said, recalling the extreme weather in November.

They're planting now, for the 2019 crop; and while hopes are high, certainty is not.

"There is just enough moisture for the plant cane to germinate,” Les said. While his Oakenden and Marwood properties had access to irrigation, it was costly, and a good shower of rain would be welcome by just about everyone about now, he said.

Things are on track, too, for mill consistency to continue, a Mackay Sugar spokesperson said.

"Both Farleigh and Racecourse achieved their largest weekly throughput year to date. Factory reliability was good, with factories achieving above 90 per cent plant availability (91.7 per cent - group average). PRS rose another half a unit for the week and while this has put pressure on the processing end of the factories, over 32,000 tonnes was produced for the week.”

Farleigh had had only minor stoppages, with the replacement of an intermediate carrier chain and repairs to a pipeline being the main two. A large derailment was returned to service quickly and only resulted in loss of supply for 2.5 hours.

There was a scheduled maintenance day at Marian, while Racecourse had its best week to date.

"The sugar rate is still limiting crush rate, but the major stoppages for the week were repairs to the bagasse bin electrical system and derailments in the full and empty yards,” the spokesperson said.

"The higher PRS coupled with issues around the pan stage (tube leaks) are the main limiting factors. An extended maintenance stop is planned to address some of the problems in the processing areas.”

WEEKLY CRUSH STATISTICS

MACKAY SUGAR

Farleigh 70,615

Marian 97,788

Racecourse 65,309

Total tonnes 233,713

Total tonnes to date 1,713,946

PRS week 14.20

PRS year to date 12.48