JOOF Albert first toyed with macadamias in 1972 back on his home soil of South Africa and has re-entered the game on the NSW North Coast with the same pioneering spirit.
Following on the back of terrific success by the Dorey brothers, Newrybar, where floodplain farming has achieved the highest yields ever seen, Mr Albert is keen to take a similar path.
He has followed much of the brothers’ advice and is planting 12,000 trees on 47 hectares between the Richmond River and the Pacific Ocean.
Guided by fellow South African-born agronomist Janus Erasmus, and aided by the enthusiasm of Macadamia Processing Company’s Kevin Quinlan and Jim Perch, he is convinced he has made the right decision by growing macadamia nuts on the coastal floodplain.
The tasty tree nut is indigenous to the red volcanic soils of the Alstonville Plateau, which can be seen rising to the west of his property. Until the Dorey brothers proved otherwise nobody bothered with floodplain horticulture.
Mr Albert’s foray has come at an initial cost, of course. The sandy loam was wildly out of balance, with a pH of 4.1, aluminium very high at 18 per cent and calcium down to 25pc.
“With soil like that you cannot grow roots,” he said. Trees planted by a previous owner were three years old at the time Mr Albert took over and the leaf tips were burnt terribly by aluminium toxicity, as well as salt-laden air from the ocean.
Casuarina wind breaks and protection from neighbouring trees will reduce future salt burn.
He corrected his locked-up soils with a generous application of lime at the rate of 12.5 tonnes/ha.
He has imported feedlot cattle manure at 10t/ha to boost potassium, not bothering with chicken waste. “I didn’t want the nitrogen levels”, he said.
Land was laser leveled and mounded 600 millimetres high between drains, which are left fallow at their deepest to nurture beneficial insects.
The cost to lay down trees on this part of the floodplain – including the cost of the land itself – as well as ground preparation and liming comes to $28,000/ha which is the same as red soil country with no improvements whatsoever. Mr Albert says he has himself a bargain.
The Dorey brothers proved yields on their farms have averaged 7 tonnes/ha of nut in shell at 10pc moisture. Red soils yield 3.5t/ha on good farms while the industry average is back about 2.2t/ha.
Nut set on Mr Albert’s six-year-old trees are promising and that has to do with the fact trees on the floodplain are smaller, allowing more light to enter the canopy, and day/night temperatures are closer.
“On the plateau they grow vegetation,” he said. “On the floodplain we grow nuts.”
