Nuseed biofuel harvest
Nuseed's carinata trial crop harvest is underway in Argentina and France as the Nufarm seed technology business scales up the oilseed cover crop for production of renewable fuel and stockfeed.
Its carinata project, acquired a year ago by Nuseed, promises to produce one of the lowest carbon fuel ingredients available and has attracted support from international airlines such as Qantas and United Airlines as a fuel option to reduce greenhouse gases.
A co-product of crushing carinata to extract the non-food oil is a high protein, non-GMO meal for animal feed.
Based on observations made in trials in 2017 and 2018 Nuseed formulated the brassica planting framework for current trials in southern France.
"The research plots show good potential, and growing Nuseed carinata hybrids between rotations in the same region as Europe's largest biofuel producers would be a huge benefit," said Nuseed's carinata global business development leader, Alex Clayton.
"Work we are doing now is the start of a strategy to help ensure Nuseed carinata hybrids grow well in what are typically unproductive periods in the crop cycle for growers in the EU."
.........
Meat from air?
Another Californian fake meat startup has entered the new-age food fray, but with a distinct difference.
Air Protein is developing technology it promises will produce protein from the elements found in air.
The startup has attracted more than $40 million in funding from a range of investors led by the venture capital arm of big US grain market and processing giant Archer Daniels Midland.
Air Protein extracts basic elements in air such as carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen, combining them with water, minerals and probiotics in fermentation vessels to yield amino acids.
The technology is still in the earliest development stages, but it apparently produces a flour rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals.
Physicist and Air Protein founder, Lisa Dyson, said the amino acids could then be sculpted under pressure and temperature to provide the same flavor and texture as meat
"Air Protein's technology doesn't require arable land and can be deployed anywhere in any climate," she said.
.........
Select secures Piangil orchard
Select Harvest wrapped up its purchase of the high yielding Piangil almond orchard in northern Victoria just prior to Christmas, acquiring 1566 hectares of almond trees, including 1177 mature plantings, and 1877 megalitres of high security water entitlements and a further 622Ml of low reliability water.
The purchase includes a further 640ha of unplanted land.
The expansion takes Select's total planting area to almost 930 hectares and is expected to increase this year's almond production by about 4600 tonnes.
..........
WA urea plant plans
South Australian oil and gas company Strike Energy is floating plans to establish a $2.3 billion nitrogen fertiliser venture fuelled by low cost gas from West Australia's Perth Basin.
The project would be based at Geraldton on WA's mid west coast.
Strike expects talks with potential customers will result in import-competitive offtake contracts for urea being sorted by mid-year.
The low production costs are forecast to undercut urea import competitors by as much 50 per cent, even after shipping product from Geraldton to South Australian ports.
.........
Online marketing for farmers
La Trobe University and Agriculture Victoria are joining forces to offer a new free program to farmers and business people looking to transition to online marketing opportunities, or scale up.
Digital Harvest will provide 12 weeks of online workshops to support agri-food businesses develop and enhance their skills and implement effective e-commerce strategies.
Workshops will run midweek between 6pm and 8pm, from February.
Course topics featured include digital strategy for agribusiness; Google platforms plugins and tools; analytics and data; search engine optimisation and search engine marketing; digital content and storytelling; email marketing, and social marketing.
Simon Mildren, founder of beekeeping software and sensor technology startup HiveKeepers, will be one of the workshop hosts, discussing innovation in agriculture.
Mr Mildren, based at Bendigo and on the Mornington Peninsula said it was vital food producers embraced the business opportunities available via a strong online presence.
"It's easy to get comfortable and not realise the world is rapidly changing and we need to become better connected to it."
- Contact accelerator@latrobe.edu.au for more information before the January 28 application deadline.
Start the day with all the big news in agriculture! Sign up below to receive our daily Farmonline newsletter.