Go North young man go North - Cropping in Northern Territory

Outspoken liberal senator Bill Heffernan has recently advocated a innovative solution to the prolonged drought facing Australian farmers in the southern States.

The solution to this crisis he suggests is for part of the farming sector to uproot itself and move North to the tropical parts of Australia that have got plentiful supplies of water.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1766112.htm

The question is what are farmers going to grow up North? Not everyone can make a living out of horticultural crops suited to the tropical climate such as mangoes and bananas.

Energy Crops Australia (ECA) is doing initial field trial of a promising broad acre crop for the tropical North - Soybeans. These trials are strongly supported by Natural Fuel Limited (NFL) in its encouragement of domestic biodiesel feedstocks.

www.naturalfuel.com.au

According to a presentation by Dick Selwood , the Managing Director of NFL, at the Australia Oilseeds Forum last week the first field trial in 2006 looked promising and the second trial on 500 hectares will be planted in January 2007.

The soybean is planned to be a feed stock for the newly commissioned $ 80 million biodiesel plant that Natural Fuels (an equal joint venture between NFL and Babcock & Brown Environmental Investments Limited) have had built in Perth and successfully transported to Darwin. Naturally, in addition to the oil derived from the soybean there will also be a lot of soybean meal that could be used as animal feed.

Dick disclosed that ECA had earmarked a further 50,000 hectares of land with water rights in the Northern Territory for growing soybeans on a large scale if the trials were successful. This would yield 100,000 tonnes of soybean crops per annum.

One possibility that was raised after Dicks presentation was to use Vistive Soybeans, developed using non GM technologies for supreme oil quality for humans and which would suit biodiesel production. Soybean oil from Vistive soybeans is gaining an increasing market share in the US and Canada due to the healthier oil produced and soybean meal from Vistive soybeans are destined to reach the feed stock markets in Australia this year since the drought stricken domestic supply of feedstocks for animals and diesel engines will probably not be enough for domestic consumption.

Another interesting observation is that the Northern Territory has not got a GM crops moratorium at present.

Update
Dick Selwood's report is available at the AOF Website

GROWING CROPS FOR BIODIESEL
Australian Oil Seeds Forum
NATURAL FUEL 11 OCTOBER 2006 RICHARD SELWOOD MANAGING DIRECTOR

BIODIESEL HERE TO STAY
Europe / UK / USA
§Leading the way, Australia will follow
§Biodiesel a mainstream fuel

• Blends from B5 to B20 readily available
• B100 also available

§Commitment from car/heavy vehicle/machinery manufacturers to biodiesel
§Vision for B100

• 2020 Sweden to phase out fossil fuels entirely
• 2020 Other EU countries 20% B100 market share

See also The Full Monty on Biodiesel