THE LEUCAENA NETWORK NEWS

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Freshly chopped leucaena foliage and processed pellets (inset). Network members over the two days at Ayr. As well as in Australia, leucaena foliage meal and leucaena forage technologies are being developed in Thailand and Chumroen would like to share what they are doing with other Leucaena Network members. The leucaena varieties planted are local wild species, they are still manually harvested and processed, and Chumroen said that this method needs a lot of improvement. A corn harvester has been converted to replace the manual harvesting and a trial was conducted recently harvesting three (3) hectares of leucaena plantation in Thailand. Chumroen described it as very much like the harvesters that Ernie Young developed for use in Australia. At the same time leucaena is used to generate power from its woody biomass for their 3 MW Gasification power plant in Thailand. The variety that they are planting is Tarramba; the fresh cut wood used for firing the power plant has a moisture content of 50% DM. Chumroen believes that because leucaena provides reasonable and satisfactory yields, it is easier to manage this fast growing tree as an energy crop. Harvesting and processing the foliage is a very labour intensive operation. Leucaena Information Days, keep an eye out Three Leucaena Information Days were held at Craig Antonio’s Millmerran property as well as Terry, Dell and David Wells Hannaford property and Lingi owned by Bryant and Sussan Ussher during the second week of December. Even though drought conditions prevail over a large section of Southern Queensland landholders attending it agreed that the most important thing for them to do was to make time to learn more about leucaena. Interest in leucaena grass pastures is increasing across cooler areas, participants came from wide a-field, Tamworth and Moree in the south as far west as Surat and Roma and north to Mundubbera. 120 people attended the three (3) days. Stuart Buck QPI&F left asking Bryant Ussher about his dryland leucaena grass pastures at Lingi.
Landline camera team recording David Wells for their 2010 Program. So keen is the interest from NSW, Lester McCormick and Dr. Sue Boschma from Industry & Investment NSW Tamworth attended the Leucaena Information Day at Millmerran to learn more about leucaena grass pastures. They are searching for a perennial legume for NSW and have identified leucaena as one of their legumes of choice to undertake further trial work with across north and central areas of NSW. Many participants indicated that they could not continue the unprofitable practice of growing grain crops and would be converting cropping paddocks to leucaena grass pasture. Even though they had little spare time due to the drought, they believed that attending the Leucaena Information Day was very important as they needed assistance in taking their first step in understanding the establishment and management of leucaena The main issues participants wanted to learn more about were establishment of leucaena, grazing management and companion grass selection and establishment Participants were reminded that commercial stands of leucaena must not add to the leucaena weed problem and that leucaena is a plant grown under a Code of Practice. If growers were not prepared to abide by the CODE, The Leucaena Network message is DO NOT GROW LEUCEANA. Since Beef 2009, the popular ABC program Landline has been putting together TV footage and materials on leucaena for a show they are planning to air in the New Year. Part of their program was shot at the Wells Family property Golden Arrow where the Information Day was held. More Leucaena Information Days are planned across Queensland for 2010, so we hope to see you there. Terry Wells (second from right) at the Information Day. Pip Courtney, Landline’s Senior Reporter and her camera team were hard at work with David Wells the day prior to the information day, so please keep an eye out for the program in 2010. Landholders who had attended the earlier UQ and TLN Leucaena for Profit and Sustainably courses enjoyed the days as it gave them the opportunity to ‘network’ with researchers, extension specialist and fellow leucaena growers in finding out more on leucaena. This is one of the main reasons The Leucaena Network was established. Phone Contacts for Executive Members President – Andrew Lawrie (07) 4934 7526 Vice. President – Bryant Ussher (07) 4665 5118 Treasurer – Ruth Wagner (07) 4627 9230 Minutes Secretary – Ken Murphy (07) 4936 0337 Executive Officer – Kevin Graham 0418 411 351 Past President – Robin Cruikshank (07) 4995 1236 Research and Training – Scott Dalzell (07) 3365 1172 Accelerated Adoption of Leucaena – Stuart Buck 0427 929 187 Membership Officer – Peter Larsen (07) 4995 7228 Industry Representive – Ernie Young (07) 4927 3351 Grower Representive – Steve Farmer 0428 347 555
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THE LEUCAENA NETWORK NEWS

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