Contents:
- Introduction (below)
- The Walnut Industry
- Browsing Bushes
- Concept of Water Concentration
I enclose 3 notes on The Walnut Industry, Browsing Bushes and the Concept of Water Concentration.
Regarding the walnut industry, I believe that it is important to realise that it is possible to grow crops in between the walnut trees to utilise the ground until we get a commercial return from the trees. I believe the long wait for this return is putting many people off the idea to grow walnuts commercially. In countries in the Balkan it is a usual practice to grow peaches in between the walnut trees until they start producing commercial yields. They grow one row of peaches in between each row of walnuts and one peach tree in between each walnut tree in the row. Peaches start producing commercially after 3 years and it is not unusual in our country to plant peaches for a rotation of some 6 - 10 years. When the walnut trees are staring to cover the ground the peaches are removed. In economic terms a highly productive walnut orchard would be pretty hard to beat with regard to the net return per hectare. What impressed me above all was the ease with which such an orchard can be managed and the absence of most of the hassles that go with most other horticultural crops.
I included a note on the subject of browsing bushes. Doug Davies has done a lot of pioneering work on the subject and what I propose is simply a practical way to convert this scientific research into a practical system that can be applied in an average farm. The concept proposed is based on my experience in India with Tea as well as practical experience on our farm. We do not have livestock on our farm now and so I would not be able to pursue the matter myself.
The note regarding water concentration is also based on work I did in India as well as experience on our farm where we established a large number of trees on a rainfall of some 30 cm per season. In India I was involved in a feasibility study regarding a desert afforestation scheme and made myself familiar with the technics used for large-scale implementation of such a project. The project was to study the feasibility to establish a shelterbelt across the fringes of the Thar Desert. The proposed shelterbelt was going to be 450 miles long and 5 miles wide. While the study proved that such a project was feasible and the actual work was practical, the Indian government decided to irrigate the area with the giant Rajasthan Canal Project which irrigated 10 Million acres of desert which made the proposed shelterbelt unnecessary. It was a great experience personally.
I enclose also some rough sketches to illustrate the notes. Also a copy of the newspaper article about the Webster project in Tasmania. It is interesting that they are budgeting to harvest 4000 tons of walnuts a season, which in our country and on the world market would be worth some $18 million or $36000 per hectare.
Otto Muller
The Walnut Industry by Otto Muller
The two major factors limiting the walnut industry are blight and frost. In Central Otago the area suitable for planting is limited to areas frost-free during the growing season of walnuts. While in Canterbury areas with lower rainfall are preferred because higher rainfall areas are more likely to have problems with blight. David McNeill is working on a rather ingenious project to find a solution to the problem of blight. If he is successful he will have earned the gratitude of walnut growers all over the world because blight is not just a New Zealand problem.
To the question as to who should look at walnut cultivation as a form of land-use, I would suggest that 3 groups would do well to do so.
1. There are a large number of 10 acre blocks. In many cases the people have got what they are looking for. However in many cases the owners find that it is too demanding to look after the great variety of farm activities that they are involved. In many cases they are very much in the red financially. Once a walnut orchard is established it does not take too much time to look after it. There would be very few days that one could not possible go to play golf or go fishing because there is something on the walnut orchard that has to be done today and could not wait until tomorrow. Where there is a concentration of smaller walnut orchards it will not be long before an enterprising kiwi gets himself the necessary machinery to go contract harvesting. And after the rather long period walnut trees take to come into full production the owners of such a walnut orchard will be pleasantly surprised about the very high returns such an orchard is able to bring in. Since winter is a quite period on a walnut orchard it would be quite feasible to organise an overseas holiday without neglecting what has to be done over the winter.
2. A walnut orchard would be a good investment to get a retirement income. It would be necessary to get started about 15 years before retirement. But it would be quite feasible to establish a walnut orchard in the country while working in the city and doing the orchard work over weekend, which would generally involve irrigation and watering. Once the orchard is coming into commercial production it would be a very profitable enterprise that still leaves enough time to do all the things for which there was never enough time during the busy working live.
3. There is scope for large plantations of walnuts. The operation can be completely mechanised and as such lends itself to large-scale production. A large Tasmanian company is establishing a 500 hectare block of intensive walnut orchard. They budget for a production of 4000 tons of whole nuts, which at present N. Z prices and world prices would be worth some $18 Million a year. The big problem to many people is the very long period required before the orchard achieves commercial production, which in our country would be some 10 years. This however is not as big a problem as appears at first. The young walnut trees occupy only a very small part of the orchard and there is no reason as to why the ground in between cannot be used for other crops until the young walnut tree starts spreading out and bring a commercial return. If the proposed orchard is part of a livestock farm there is no need to reduce stock numbers. . The area in walnut trees simply would be used to make bay or silage. We found that from year seven we could keep our merinos in the walnut orchard without any tree protection. We also found that horses did not do any damage even on very small trees. We only had one horse that did develop a liking for walnuts which turned out to be a rather expensive way to feed a horse.
We did sell a small piece of land for a flower grower who did grow Asian Lilies between the walnut trees. The walnut trees kept on producing nuts normally and the lilies did well. There is no reason one cannot grow a crop of corn, onions or squash and countless other crops until the walnut trees start covering a major part of the ground. Walnut trees are very deep-rooted and in suitable ground will have roots extending to 5 meters dept. As such they are not very much affected by shallow rooted crops, provided fertiiser is applied to cover the need for both crops and there is no shortage of irrigation water. Commercial walnut production is very profitable and there would be very few other crops that would provide a comparable return after costs. Above all among the horticultural crops there would be very few that involve the low level of hassles you have to contend with on a walnut orchard.
We planted our first walnut trees 17 years ago. They were seedlings and have now a trunk of 250 mm diameter. The next planting was a trial orchard with 11 varieties of walnut trees. Among the many varieties the Vinas were outstanding from every point of view. I am aware, that Canterbury growers do not find Vina a good nut. This is probably due to the fact that in our microclimate in the Bannockburn area we have some 1250 Degreedays. They like the heat. I found that in the southern district of the San Joachim valley the average yield of the Vinas was 7 tons per hectare and these were all young plantations since the variety is a relatively new one. Unfortunately we had a big fire and lost our entire trial block. We have now our new plantation along the lake, which is slowly coming into production. . We have a nursery operation with a capacity to plant new blocks at the rate of some 800 grafted trees a year.
We are training our trees to have 2.5 meters clearwood. This does take a few years longer than allowing the lower branches to fruit. Our reasons are:
a. Keeping the fruiting branches well clear of the ground keeps them away from any ground frost.
b. Keeping the orchard clear of branches hanging down improves air circulation and avoids danger of blight
c. It is possible to provide frost protection in a nursery, while it is not practical to do so at a field level. So we grow trees to the 2. 5 meters in the nursery and transplant them, so avoiding frost damage to our young trees.
d. We can operate all our machinery under the trees without any danger of having our head chopped off.
e. During our market research we found that the highest price paid for walnut timber was for a tree trunk with a minimum diameter of 65 cm at a height of 2.5 meters (standard plywood panels are 2.4 m - 1.2 m). Last year prices paid for this grade in Germany was $5-6000 per m3. One of my friends who has a large furniture factory in Europe has his own plantation. He grows the trees to 4.5 meters clearwood. He started the plantation because he could not depend on a regular supply of walnut timber. In this way at least his son will not have this problem. We had some visitors from part of the U S A where they grow large areas of black walnuts. They told us that they had to keep armed guards on their plantation for 24 hours a day to guard this valuable timber. It is important to realise that if we want to play a part in this highly lucrative timber market, we have to be able to regularly supply substantial quantities of a high class of such timber. I feel that timber grown in the North Island would grow too fast to be acceptable by European furniture manufacturers.
It is quite possible that some varieties of walnuts growing in areas which are generally not considered to be suitable for commercial walnut production could very well have resistance against blight. Nick Nelson Parker at Opotiki has varieties doing well in the area, where our selected varieties would most likely be a failure. I believe that it is possible that this genetic plant material could be important to increase the areas where walnuts can be considered a commercial crop, since they are likely to be resistant to blight.
We have also been busy developing technology to deal with the processing of walnuts. We built a nutcracker to crack nuts with doing minimum damage to kernels and of very high capacity. It is based on a different principle to the ones used in the U S A and Europe and we got the process patented.
Here in Central Otago I can see the main limitation to the walnut industry in the very high prices paid for land suitable for growing Pinot Noir grapes. They have the same climatic requirements as our walnuts.
Additional Note (from Introduction):
Regarding the walnut industry, I believe that it is important to realise that it is possible to grow crops in between the walnut trees to utilise the ground until we get a commercial return from the trees. I believe the long wait for this return is putting many people off the idea to grow walnuts commercially. In countries in the Balkan it is a usual practice to grow peaches in between the walnut trees until they start producing commercial yields. They grow one row of peaches in between each row of walnuts and one peach tree in between each walnut tree in the row. Peaches start producing commercially after 3 years and it is not unusual in our country to plant peaches for a rotation of some 6 - 10 years. When the walnut trees are staring to cover the ground the peaches are removed. In economic terms a highly productive walnut orchard would be pretty hard to beat with regard to the net return per hectare. What impressed me above all was the ease with which such an orchard can be managed and the absence of most of the hassles that go with most other horticultural crops.
Also, a copy of the newspaper article about the Webster project in Tasmania. It is interesting that they are budgeting to harvest 4000 tons of walnuts a season, which in our country and on the world market would be worth some $18 million or $36,000 per hectare. (June 2000)
Otto Muller
Friday, June 16, 2000 - Around Tasmania
$11.6m injection for state walnut project
Expansion plans: the existing Webster walnut orchard on Tasmania's East Coast.
By DANNY ROSE
AN $1.1.6 million expansion of an East Coast walnut orchard will make it the largest in the southern hemisphere.
Already Australia's biggest producer, Webster Walnuts' holdings will more than double in size with a "cracking facility" in the pipeline.
The announcement was made yesterday by Webster Ltd managing director Rod Roberts.
"Webster Walnuts began in 1998 with the planting of 200 hectares of walnut trees ... at Swansea," Mr Roberts said.
"Over the next three years a further 300 hectares of walnut trees will be planted."
An issue of new shares in Webster Walnuts, a wholly, owned subsidiary of Webster Ltd, allowed the purchase of an adjacent property.
The assumed life of the orchard is 26 years, and is expected to be cash flow positive by 2005.
"At that stage we'll have an industry that'll be bigger than the wine industry in the state," Mr Roberts said.
Harvesting can begin about 2003, but full production is up to 10 years away.
Then 4000 tonnes of in-shell walnuts are expected per year - worth more than $16 million.
"A cracking facility to produce walnut kernel will be built around year five, providing significant. additional value-added revenue," Mr Roberts said.
The anticipated export price for Tasmanian walnuts is $4.50 a kilo; domestically about $5.40.
"Tasmanian walnuts are of much higher quality than imported product and, as a result; local demand is strong," Mr Roberts said.
Future plans include further expansion of the orchard to 800ha.
"This investment is building a valuable new export industry for the state, with benefits far into the future," Mr Roberts said.
Rod Roberts: "It'll be bigger than the wine industry"
Growing investment: the walnut tree.
Browsing Bushes by Otto Muller
Last summers drought has again drawn attention to the fact that our highly efficient grass clover pastures are very vulnerable to periods of drought. They are a relatively shallow rooted society of plants and when the soil within the root system dries out, growth comes to a sudden stop.
Doug Davies and many others from Lincoln University, DSIR and the Canterbury Treecrops Association have done a lot of pioneering work in finding plants that are palatable to stock,but keep on growing during a drought. During a drought in Banks Peninsula they found that one acre of Tagasaste produced 11000 lbs of digestible dry matter when the adjoining traditional pasture produced only 800 lbs of dry matter, which was very likely of very inferior quality. While Tagasaste is likely to be the most efficient producer of digestible feed during a drought, there are other plants that would be suitable. In Central Otago Salt Bushes do very well in a drought and are very much favoured by sheep. At the Olrig Station near Alexandra,when sheep are put into a large block with some saltbushes, the whole mob heads straight for the saltbusbes at top speed. Graham Milligan also found, that sheep very much like Eucalyptus gunnii. Moas were browsing animals and many of the native bushes have adapted themselves to be natural browsing bushes. So we have very likely a very large reservoir of existing browsing bushes in our native flora well adapted to the climate of various regions.
Doug Davies and his team have conclusively proved that it is possible to produce animal feed even in a serious drought. Unfortunately our bean-counters in the beehive are in a habit to cut funding for research just before this research is about to produce practical benefits. I believe that our Treecrop Association is the proper vehicle to take over from what Doug Davies has achieved to the point when it can become a natural part of our farming system. What are the matters that have to be resolved?
1. We have to train these bushes or trees into a shape that makes it convenient for the animals to reach. Looking at the matter from point of view of experience I had in India with tea bushes, the tea plant would normally grow into a small tree not unlike Tagasaste. But by training the tree into the familiar form it is possible for pickers to take off the young shoots
and it forces the bush to produce a very large number of shoots. Our Macrocarpa hedges and shelter belts don't grow into the tree they would naturally be inclined to do as a result of regular trimming.
2. This would require planting of very large areas of browsing bushes and it is essential that the most efficient systems of establishing these browsing paddocks is researched, which would most likely involve machine planting or direct sowing.
3. We found that stock were so found of Tagasaste, that they debarked the plants to ground level and killed them. The solution is to force the plant to develop a very large number of woody shoots that prevent the sheep and goats to reach the lower part of the plant. It also makes the plant produce a very large number of shorter shoots, which is better than a small number of very long shoots.
4. If we look at using browsing bushes merely as a means of providing feed in case of a drought, we are likely to find that when we need it, it would not be able to provide the feed required. We also miss the most important potential of browsing bushes if they are forming an integral part of our livestock farming system. Browsing Bushes can form a feed reserve on a livestock farm that is available whenever the feed production on the pastures is inadequate,be it in a summer drought or in the winter. If it is not required, it will simply grow and be available at a later date. Preserving pasture in the form of hay or silage is a very expensive exercise and there are considerable losses during the process of making hay or silage and generally even greater losses during the feeding out particularly on a muddy pasture. So even if the browsing bushes produce somewhat less feed than pasture, they do not have the losses of making and feeding out hay or silage. The farmer also can dispense with the rather unattractive practice of getting out at an ungodly hour of the morning to feed out and can spend some more time with the family before the kids go off to school. The farmer can also dispense with a lot of the very expensive equipment, which generally would not leave him any change out of a hundred grand. After all winter feeding on a farm with browsing bushes would simply mean keeping an eye on stock and whenever necessary open another gate to another paddock of browsing bushes. During winter snow stock would be well sheltered and could feed off the top of the browsing bushes.
5 When feeding stock for long periods on browsing bushes it will be necessary to have a range of different species in order to get a balanced diet. Research would be required to find a suitable balance possibly with the help of the Animal Nutrition people of Lincoln University. it is likely, that Browsing Bushes having a deep root system will have a higher level of essential trace elements.
6. Browsing Bushes will not be subject to contamination with animal parasites like for example a wet and soggy pasture.
7. A Farm using Browsing bushes as an integral part of its operation would look more like a tea plantation or like a black currant or other berryfruit farm. It would be aesthetically very attractive and would be an asset for our tourist industry.
8. The cost structure of such a farm would be a lot less than that of a conventional farm since the few pieces of machinery required to manage browsing bushes would not be very expensive and would not be used often.
9. In general a farm with browsing bushes would have roughly the same area it normally uses for preserving winterfeed or turnips or swedes in browsing bushes. Most of the farm would remain in traditional pasture.
lO. Usually after the last grazing of the bushes end of winter, it would be necessary to trim the bushes into a shape either suitable for sheep or goats or for cattle or deer. This would prevent bushes growing into trees or spreading out to prevent animals being able to walk freely between the rows of bushes. It will force the plant to produce lots of new green shoots.
I enclose also some rough sketches to illustrate the notes.
Otto Muller
The Concept of Water Concentration by Otto Muller
In areas where the normal rainfall is only marginal and very often insufficient it is often possible to greatly increase success rate when planting tree or bushes by using techniques of water concentration. Water concentration means creating conditions where part of the rainfall in an area is encouraged to run off from an area where it is not essential into an area that essentially require all the moisture we can get there. In afforestation projects in India, the Indian Forest Service practiced water concentration by digging pits where water from adjoining areas would accumulate. In undisturbed areas the rainwater penetrated 15cm, while in the pits it penetrated 1 meter assuring the establishment of the trees planted. In its most simple form on a level field, it would simply mean making a very shallow furrow of say 2 meters wide and some 15 cm deep. The center of this furrow would be cultivated and the tree or bush would be planted there.
When there is a rain of say 10mm, the amount of rain in a meter length of this furrow would be 20 litres of water. If only half of the rain runs into the center it would mean that the tree or bush would get some 10 litres of water over a 1 meter length.
If we have a similar set of circumstances on a slight slope we simply would establish a furrow 2 meters wide with its lowest point at the bottom.
If we now intend to plant a tree or bush at say every 2 meters and want to concentrate every possible amount of moisture into this area we could make a shallow pit with the center of about 15 ~20 cm. We now have an area of 4m2 draining into an area of 0.04 m2. If we now again have 10 mm of rain and half of it runs into the center, we now have 20 litres of water draining into an area of 0.04 m2 which would be equivalent to receiving half a meter of rain. The concept of water concentration would be a tool that would greatly enhance the percentage of survival in establishing trees or bushes where conditions are suitable. For example in the Sinai Desert scientists have been able to grow 1 hectare of wheat on an area of 40 hectares from run-off from the desert. This is without any water storage. Under normal circumstances every particle of soil is surrounded by a film of water. This makes it possible for rain to penetrate into the soil. However if the soil is really dried out in the middle of a severe drought, this film of water also dries out and when rain finally comes, it is not able to penetrate into the ground and runs off like water on a greasy pan. This increases the run-off to almost the total rainfall, which means in the above example the rainwater running into the center would be almost equal to 1 metre of rain.
At one time I was involved in a feasibility study into a desert afforestation scheme and at that time I made myself familiar with the technology available to carry out this operation on a large scale, The implement used is called a Basin Lister and it consists of a tractor drawn tool something like a snowplough. but with its nose pointing down. The implement is supported on an axle, which has a crank in the middle and the implement now lifts and lowers with every revolution. This produces a lifting and lowering based on a sinus curve. The alternative is to use a cam and roller. With this system it is practical to make almost any pattern of lifting and lowering of the implement. The most effective pattern is to create a diamond shaped depression with a regular slope. It would be quite simple to combine this set-up with a tree planter, which plants the trees or bushes into the centre of the depression. The wings of the implement will cut the turf and deposit it on the side, which allows the young tree or bush to get a start without the usual competition from surrounding vegetation. The technique of water concentration is only practical where the soil is of considerable depth and where it has a tendency to allow water to run off.
I visualise that water concentration would be an important factor in establishing a paddock of browsing bushes in an area with generally low rainfall. It would also increase growth rate and rate of survival when planting plantations or shelter belts under conditions where moisture stress is a very serious problem. In the enclosed illustration about the afforestation on the Jumna River bank only poor quality scrub could grow. With the help of water concentration, it was possible to plant Babul trees (Nitrogen fixing producing a profusion of beans edible for livestock), which 4 years after planting bad reached 6 meters height and growing vigorously. Water concentration requires certain conditions to be successful, above all a soil that is deep enough and a soil structure and a rainfall pattern, where run-off will take place. Incidentally the Jumna River used to be my favourite fishing ground, when I was working in Northern India. The eroded river banks looked something like the Badlands of Dakota, but could be transformed into a highly productive forest that also provided feed for large herds of livestock who fed from the large quantity of edible beans that fell off the trees.
Additional Note (from Introduction):
The note regarding water concentration is also based on work I did in India as well as experience on our farm where we established a large number of trees on a rainfall of some 30 cm per season. In India I was involved in a feasibility study regarding a desert afforestation scheme and made myself familiar with the techniques used for large-scale implementation of such a project. The project was to study the feasibility to establish a shelterbelt across the fringes of the Thar Desert. The proposed shelterbelt was going to be 450 miles long and 5 miles wide. While the study proved that such a project was feasible and the actual work was practical, the Indian government decided to irrigate the area with the giant Rajasthan Canal Project which irrigated 10 Million acres of desert which made the proposed shelterbelt unnecessary. It was a great experience personally.
FIG. 114. Bare eroded lands on the upper Jumna were quicklv reforested by digging these pits to catch rain water and irrigate the trees. Pits increased water penetration severalfold, from 6 inches to 40 inches. Pits dug by famine relief funds. In a few more decades a hungry world will dig these pits by the million. (Courtesy E. A. Smythies, Indian Forest Service.)
I enclose also some rough sketches to illustrate the notes.
Otto Muller
