Production research overview

Introduction to project & orchard. Dr Micheal Treeby, Irymple, September 2018

Australia, being a high cost producer, we have to move towards, we need to move towards more intensive production systems so we can just basically improve our productivity, reduce our costs. That's the bottom line. As we move to those intensive production systems, there's a lot of things we simply don't know. How those trees are going to behave as we crowd them in, and will we be able to achieve those high levels of productivity over time. It's not as easy as just planting more sticks in the ground and that's the general response to more intensive production systems. There's a whole stack of other stuff, unknowns. Tree architecture, for example, and the whole relationship between how crowded those trees are, how much light gets in there to promote the development of fruiting buds if you like, flowers. Whether that is sustainable over time, that's the key. We have to remember that an orchard planting will be in the ground for maybe 20 years, 25 years. That's a long investment window. So being able to get those trees producing as soon as they can and then producing consistently from season to season. That's going to be the trick. The almond orchard, the whole concept got off the ground in about 2015 and about 2016 we were able to secure Commonwealth support for that project, for the development of the thing in conjunction with a similar development to the South Australians and with the New South Wales people as well. So, about 2016 things really started kicking off. At this stage we're looking to develop the full 20 hectares on this site, principally to almonds but not exclusively so. We will also be developing experimental trials, plantings of other nut crops, temperate not crops that are suitable for this region.