“Lifestyle” macadamia farming, anyone?
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- On my 1st anniversary at Nutkin Farm, I share my experiences and try to answer the difficult question of whether lifestyle farming is actually an option for macadamia orchards. Enjoy.
Macadamia is long term investment ,be ready to go out your way ,finances should be able to take you through the year ,And at the end 50 yes constant income ,I love your farm ,am in Uganda we are being trained for macadamia ,I have started small 2 acres but will continue to plant more every year thanks for your video filder
Thanks Filder, I'm glad you enjoy watching from so far away!
Wow lots of good advice and a nice farm. ❤
I came across your video just now as I have only one Macadamia tree and wanted to know the ideal growing conditions.I’m establishing a Food forest to try and ensure I can feed my family in these uncertain times. Always interesting to get a good perspective on farming practices. I find my Food forest is a labour of love for me as it brings me Peace and tranquility. Great Video.
Hi Wendy. Thanks for watching. Your feedback is an inspiration to do a video on that exact topic - growing a macadamia tree in your home garden. Thank you!
Thanks for doing these videos. Please keep doing them.
That’s really kind of you Dan. Thanks - it keeps me going!
These videos are a great source of information for an aspiring orchard owner like myself. I especially appreciate your honest down to earth delivery style. Good stuff, thanks for sharing. If you're interested in some honey bees to assist pollination this coming spring let me know 👍
Belated thanks for your comment Scott. My plumber has promised me some bees this flowering season, but if he doesn't come through I would love to be in touch!
@@nutkinfarm No worries, let me know how you go. I currently have 8 hives, but that number will double come spring. 👍
Lots of wonderful points discussed in this video.
The 1000 tree tipping point of where the use of contractors under your own management or external whole farm management is of interest to me.
I think it’s about 300 trees at 8 x 4m spacing per hectare. This gives me some guidance when assessing existing farms or land to convert to orchid.
Of course if you are going to use inter-row cover cropping then those land size figures would need to double again.
Hi Aaron. Glad you liked the discussion. It's mostly still current (and still my opinion) although the macadamia price has dropped a bit. Contractors are, in the main, not raising prices as they're aware of their customers' market conditions.
Congratulations on your first 12 months and may you have many prosperous more. It look's like you made the right choice without doubt, you are on a beautiful looking piece of land so all being well with a bit of care and attention it should see you right. Good luck with everything going forward, all the best.👍
Thanks for the encouragement Jason. There's a lot left to do to get the place back up to speed, especially in the newer blocks, but the 'bones' are there and it is a pretty setting to do it in. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@nutkinfarm I was a little jealous when you said it was going to be 22 there today, it was lucky to get to 14 here in Adelaide today.😂 Seriously you sound like you are enjoying yourself with your new endeavours which is the main thing, keep on working at it and you'll get on top of the place. All you would have to do if you were having a tough day is look around and the scenery would pick you up. All the best.
Yes well done. Maca farming is interesting. When I grew up in the Nambucca I was aware of macadamia farming. It was something ex army officers did in Valla. It was a bit of a joke amongst the locals.
Fast forward to today macadamia farming is still met with skepticism. Planting trees on my land is questioned by a few people. However when a tree sitting on 30 square meters of land can generate considerable income, the questions are answered by fists full of dollars!
How much income can be generated by cattle grazing on 30 square meters of land? Not much.
@@kdegraa absolutely! Also bear in mind that farmers are rock stars in a recession. Property tanks, the share market wobbles, term deposits are meaningless, but we all still need to eat. Macadamia prices rose over 12% vs near zero inflation this last season - it's not an investment to laugh at. As for the Valla region - a very clever area considering land price vs return. The strangest varieties do well there too, by some reports, including A4 and even A29.
Yes its a beautiful and interesting farm though its sad to see stumps of trees in the rows. I've been in communication with another grower who is planting a new orchard on his place north of Casino. His agronomist came back with a finding the soil is clay based. This is pretty well the same as the soil on my place too. The only difference is down the bottom top soil is quite deep while up the ridge top soil is quite shallow.
His agronomist says in clay soil, maca trees will not grow as big as what they will in the red soil around Lismore and Alstonville. I tend to agree with this as the older macadamia trees on my place are not that big. They are of the 246 variety and are at most around 4 meters tall. I was also told though the trees will not grow very big, they will fruit quite a lot.
I hope this is true as it will mean management of the orchard will be a lot easier in the future. We are going to try to get an agronomist to come out to our orchard in September so we can get a better idea of what is needed to get the newly planted trees growing as best as possible.
You and I are approaching the same question from different perspectives. You bought an established orchard. I’m planting an orchard on my part of the family farm. So I’m doing what those rich people did back in the 90s. Though I have little money compared to them.
I agree that mowing is the biggest job in an orchard. So we need the best mowing machine. For me on a limited budget it is an Iseki SF mower. It’s been a good machine so far.
Your farm is really really beautiful & interesting.
Somehow I think your 4WD Iseki would go better on my farm than my zero turn Kubota does, but yes it sure does make the difference! Next summer I'll be learning the lessons of the last one and will try not to let the grass get out of hand. I should have mentioned that mowing is possibly the best way to get to know your land.. it's a more peaceful activity than it looks or sounds, don't you think? :-)
The Iseki SF is truly a great workhorse for me. It is a great mower. It’s really a mowing machine in that once it starts going it just goes and goes. Years ago I mowed the farm with the big Same tractor & a slasher. It’s heaps easier, quicker & more fun to mow with the Iseki. With the ag tyres it can go up and down the hill without issues too.
I have a security/webcam watching a bit of my orchard online. From this camera I can see the grass & weeds starting to grow. So I’ll try to make a production video of the Iseki fighting the good fight against tall grass & weeds.
Digging holes with a mini digger is one way to get a better feeling for the ground than mowing it.
However when we were digging holes we came across a tree stump in the ground. This is a stump in the middle of a paddock that has been treeless for at least 60 years. This really whacked me like a feather duster.
When I talked about this with my mum she said when they bought the farm in around 1973 they spent a lot of time burning or exploding lots of tree stumps. I remember this as a little kid, the burning and using explosives. The explosives were exciting.
My mum also said they found a lot of liquor bottles in the stumps. So someone in the 1960s or earlier enjoyed taking a bottle of grog out onto their farm, sitting under a tree & once it was consumed, placing the bottle in a tree stump. It’s kind of interesting.
Mowing grass is a great way to learn the land. The bumps and dips, one finds them all along with rocks & stumps.
I’m watching this video on a Thursday morning. Off to work in half an hour at noon. I watched your latest video on cutting off the below graft suckers. CZcams thinks I’d like to watch this video again. Aren’t they smart?
@@kdegraa so that happens to you too? My auto play takes me back here often. It's my most watched video I suppose. Pretty dumb algorithm!
It’s also good for physical & mental health to be working on a farm.
Agreed Karl. If it’d only stop raining!
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
great video
That's very kind of you!
Nice dam
Thanks Tim. I go in for a closer look at it here: czcams.com/video/Auk7SSFdPqM/video.html - enjoy!
Nice Farm, thank for sharing. I've 3 Acre of Macadamia farm at Myanmar only 3 months. I'd like to take your advice. Thanks you.
So, just viewed this on Utube- frankly, 12 months on a farm like Nutkin is great. However, the prices are good and so is the weather. You need more time in harder times before you assess what is good for people. After you have done a couple of years with drought, flooding rain, cyclones etc. you may think differently. I know your farm well, you are unlucky in that your farm is quite 'hilly' but very lucky to maintain your rainforest - believe me that rainforest is your tool to maintain your integrated pest management and all-around well being of your trees/ soil/environment. This knowledge takes time to learn. I have witnessed many barristers/doctors etc. come here and assume that because they have been successful in one industry - then it follows that they will be good macadamia growers. Nope,there is so much more to it...and it all doesn't fall within a 12 month period. Keep it up but I am sure you will look back on this video and have a laugh.
Hi Cath. I had no more than a year's experience to offer, and I was up front about that. There are all kinds of challenges I am yet to face, although the drought in my first season wasn't exactly a honeymoon. This season is completely different and shows a lot more promise - provided it doesn't get too wild! I agree with what you say - I think the key to it is humility, which includes a willingness to accept advice and learn from those with experience. Somewhere in there is a little room for personal choices and experiments too, so don't begrudge me those - even if I do end up laughing at myself.
The rainforest on my place is precious in its own right - leave aside its benefit to agriculture. If I do anything with that it may well be toward making it a better home for koalas through removal of rogue species, but it's a long haul plan.
How do you know my farm, if you don't mind my asking?
@@nutkinfarm Thanks for your reply- we are in Rosebank - we came up here 25 years ago. We know its two previous owners and managers. I have been asked to look over it twice now...to know the terrain. Good on you for putting your views out there.
@@cathford363 that's great - I'd love to meet you and hear your story and views on the area one day. Long term residents are a bit thin on the ground - too many of us recent blow-ins, as you know - I'd like a more solid grounding and would soak up anything you tell me like a sponge.
Do you have much rainforest left on your land? The red soil used to all be sub-tropical rainforest. There's only 0.3% of it left. Planting trees for land rehabilitation is 100% tax deductible.
Hi Wildforest! I have about 50% of my land as rainforest, with the other 50% either dwellings or under planting. You can see more of my rainforest section in this video: czcams.com/video/TiswVxqvuUw/video.html . I plan to keep the 50-50 ratio. There isn't much need to actually plant more, although there's a lot of lantana and other junk in among the rainforest that needs to be taken out.
Hi, thanks for the video!! Can you suggest or shed some light on how to findout if the plant we are buying is good for commercial plantation. We are thinking of starting in India.
Hi there. I’d really need some specific details on the variety, but honestly I’m not the right person to advise on how well it would grow in India. Your best approach would be to google for macadamia consultants and ask if any of them have provided services in India.
@@nutkinfarm Thank you for the help. Cheers
rất tuyệt!
There are a few dodgy contractors out there. Herd many horror stories
Yes, I’ve heard those too but the services market has matured a lot. There’s some decent competition in the Northern Rivers. I’m not suggesting it’ll ever be as good as one’s own perfectionism, but it can work. On the other hand, I looked at a couple of farms that had been entirely leased out and they’d been flogged for short term cropping - not good.
Wasn’t the father and son team from Dunoon?
Jarrod Adams there are a fair few family businesses so I don’t know which one you’re referring to.
Nutkin Farm Have herd many things..... drawing the line is a good thing, maybe if you had a larger slasher for your tractor you could cut your mowing time down? That being said during the summer months letting it go feral may also save some work and build up more mulch for the next time you need it along with providing a home for the beneficials? I really don’t like the idea of paying someone over $100/hour to sit on a machine and drive around. Seems over the top but most things in the industry are over priced
Jarrod Adams I know what you mean. One school of thought is to let weeds bloom in spring to give pollinators some extra temptation. I won’t do it next summer though. I believe regular mowing is needed in the growing season to promote the running grasses and discourage the seed grasses like setaria that don’t make a good harvest floor. I’m also told - but haven’t enough experience to know - that a zero turn will beat a slasher for speed, although I accept your point that you’d slash less often.