The cane farmer is being pragmatic. He knows all too well how fickle the season can be and the last two years have taught him the impact weather can have on his 84-hectare farm 90km south of Mackay.

But for now, the season is looking brilliant, with intermittent rain falling at all the right times since September.

Mr Borg (pictured) produces about 6000 tonnes of cane each year on his farm at West Hill, near Carmila, and is the deputy chairman of Mackay Canegrowers and the chairman of the Plane Creek Area Committee.

Queensland Country Life caught up with Mr Borg on Monday in the midst of a torrential downpour, which he said was perfect at this time of year - provided it was balanced with good sunshine leading up to the start of harvest.

Mr Borg said growers in the central region needed a good year, after a huge rainfall in 2010 ruined the crush for that year, held back planting and caused some 360,000t of standover cane in the wider Mackay region.

In the Plane Creek area alone, Mr Borg said only 815,000t of cane was crushed at the Sucrogen mill in Sarina in 2010, compared with 1.06 million tonnes last year.

While the tonnage crushed was up last year, sugar content was lower, with commercial cane sugar (CCS) levels of 13.51 in 2011 compared to 14.04 in 2010 at Sarina.

Mr Borg said that, while figures were not yet available, he was confident a much larger area of plant cane would have gone in the ground late last year to make up for the lost plant in 2010.

Despite a large fall of about 100mm at the beginning of September in the southern area of Plane Creek, Mr Borg said last year's crush and the current growing season had largely favourable weather.

"The intermittent rain since the crush finished has allowed us to get all our weed control done and fertiliser on. The crop is looking good at this stage," he said.

"I'd expect that there would be a significant increase in tonnes per hectare harvested on the 2011 crop if things keep going well.

"Prices are good and growers are really keen to get a good year where everything lines up."

Mr Borg had 400t of standover cane on his farm alone in 2010, which he said, contributed to lower CCS levels in the 2011 cane.

Mr Borg said provided good weather continued this year, Plane Creek growers were on track for an early June start date to the 2012 crush.