Last week's collapse of a clarifier at the CSR Sugar's Pioneer Mill near Brandon has stopped the operation of the mill for an estimated 10-14 weeks.
It has also caused a major disruption to the crush as Pioneer Mill cane has to be taken on a tortuous rout to the other three mills, as not all the cane railway lines are compatible.
It looks like being a repeat of the past few years when poor mill performance and late starts have extended the crush past Christmas, or even January as happened this year, and even then 140,000 tonnes of cane was left to stand over.
The old rule of thumb is "never harvest a block that is to be ratooned after Guy Fawkes Night, November 5", as it won't reach its potential. Unfortunately that has happened in recent years and the result is a reduction in production of up to 40pc.
To say Burdekin growers are sceptical about the assurance from CSR Sugar that the problem at the Pioneer Mill "will not have a material effect on earnings in its sugar business" is an understatement.
Canegrowers Burdekin district manager, Jim Collins, said angrily: "On the contrary we believe it will have an enormous and debilitating impact on cane growers and the local community alike, resulting in a likely negative impact on the CSR Burdekin milling earnings.
"Growers have had to endure significant financial losses from poor mill performance and maintenance for a number of years now, and we are fast approaching a situation where their lack of confidence in the local infrastructure may make them question whether to get out of cane altogether.
"We have warned senior CSR Sugar management for the past four years that the continued lack of maintenance, erratic daily mill performance and resulting extension to season length is crippling cane production in the Burdekin, which is down from 9.2 million tonnes to an estimate of 7.5mt this season, and the downward slide looks set to continue.
"The horror run we face this year will be of the same magnitude as the CSR Co-generation debacle of 2005 that saw Pioneer Mill out of action for a similar period.
"The fact is that the Burdekin landscape in the past four years has changed considerably, with cane production yielding to the introduction of cotton, corn, legumes and horticulture and the move from cane to alternative crops is only set to escalate with more growers choosing to make a complete change out of cane."
Mr Collins said CSR's largest mill, Invicta, was yet to put in a good week, and with so much instability abounding in the Burdekin "we can only recommend our growers prepare for a very late harvest, and most likely more standover".
"CSR shareholders should ask how the continuing crop reduction will impact on demerger prospects, company renewable energy aspirations and in particular the recent senior sugar management claims of ongoing reductions to mill capital expenditure."