THE successful end to the 2016 crush, in which more than two million tonnes of cane was processed at Wilmar's Proserpine mill, has brought miller and grower together in acknowledgement of their successful partnership.

Mill site manager Danny Van der Berg conceded the delay to the crush this year and mill shut-downs caused by rain early in the season planted a seed of doubt in many as to whether the mill would crush out this year.

It did, leaving 10,000 tonnes of standover cane in the field due to wet conditions as well as that deliberately left by growers.

Mr Van der Berg also acknowledged some "bumpy periods” in 2016 due to reliability issues.

"The inconsistent run associated with wet conditions made it difficult to plan for maintenance shuts, particularly when they occurred over weekends,” he said.

"From our perspective it is about being transparent and trying to communicate with the harvesters and growers what is going on and trying to give them some idea about what caused the delays.

"We subsequently realised the conditions out in the paddock were equally as tough,” he said.

This was attested to by Proserpine Canegrowers chair and Glen Isla grower Glen Clark.

"As the year progressed the crop got bigger, and at the end of the day the priority was to get the crop off and we have achieved that,” he said.

"It's a combined effort between growers, the harvesting sector and the mill.

"We have done it and that's what counts.”

Mr Clark described the mill performance as "reasonable” and he considered the Proserpine region fortunate not to be faced with the dire situation confronting growers supplying Mackay mills after mill breakdowns caused up to 400,000tonnes left in the field.

Mr Van der Berg said the decision to crush into late December in the Proserpine region was not based on unusually high CCS levels so late in the season.

"To get that last stick of cane off - that was our objective. We realise that margins reduce significantly the longer we run, with no benefit from deteriorating CCS toward the end of the season,” he said.