The group is so named after their first meeting was held at the Tropical City Motel in Ayr in October 2004. Organised by the Department for State Development and the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries FutureCane initiative, the meeting comprised cane farmers, farm machinery developers, other agricultural industries and researchers.

Participants agreed that the forum was a good starting point for the formation of partnerships with growers, machinery manufacturers, other agricultural industries and researchers.

As a result, a second meeting was held in Mackay during April 2005 and a third in Ayr in December 2005. The most recent meeting was held in Innisfail in December 2006 and the next is scheduled for Maryborough in April 2007.

The aim of the group has been to see what the innovators are doing in each region, share and discuss the information with the view to learning from each other, and perhaps save reinventing the same wheel in each area.

It has also been an opportunity to see what growers and engineers have been doing re modifications of their machinery, trying out new ideas, ie. alternative row spacings, controlled traffic and precision agriculture.

It was an aim of the group initially to define a standard row spacing for the industry, however they have now shifted their focus, perhaps because it has been realised that a particular specification can’t be defined because of the differences in farms, their regions and in individually preferred farming methodologies.

The group is now focusing on the fact that everyone has different farming issues and it is now the role of the group to look at farming systems development and implementing new technology into the industry for ways on how to address them.

Future meetings will be looking at the issues of the day, getting speakers to generate discussion to stimulate the group to try out new things, experience new findings, and in turn, come to these meetings and relay them to the rest of the industry.

The group believes they are on the threshold of heading the industry into new farming systems and are using the GIVE site as a medium for recording and sharing their findings.