May 13th

 

Close-up of olive clusters on the tree.

Oasis olive oil bottle in front of the orchard.

We started the day with a short drive from Shepparton, Victoria to a local olive oil farm called Oasis Olives. Oasis Olives stretches over 250 hectares (~618 acres) with each tree planted five meters (15 feet) apart. They raise over 35 different varieties which range in age from just being planted to their oldest trees being 25 years old. For all of their varieties the olive tree takes three years to produce their first fruit and the tree takes ten years to be fully grown. In order to create a fruit for the next year, the trees need to go through a “winter” which will make the tree go into a dormant phase. The olive trees will be harvested once a year right before their winter period in the months of April-June. The farmers are looking for the olives to turn from green to black in order to start harvest. The harvest window is important because they will only be able to harvest 12-15% olive oil from green olives but when they turn to a darker color the olive oil content is 25%; however it is not as flavorful. 

Olive oil extruders that separate the oil from water.

 A look at the inside of an olive harvester designed to shake the olives free from the tree. 

The olives can be harvested by either a shaker harvester and an over-the-top harvester. After the olives are collected from the trees they go in a drop floor leading to a washing station that will separate the olives from the leaves. Next, the olives go to the crusher where the palmers (skins) will be separated from the olive oil. The palmers will be ground up and spread back on ground around the olive trees. Another interesting part about this farm is that they utilize sheep to eat the grass in between the trees and to create uniformity in height of the lower leaves on the trees. The olive oil industry is controlled by Spain who controls 60% of the market. Within the past 10 years the price has gone from three dollars a liter to 15 dollars a liter due to poor crops in Spain. This pricing has caused Oasis and other olive oil producers to lose some of their restaurant consumer because of this price.

Next we went to Agriculture Victoria’s Tatura SmartFarm, which was established in 1937 with approximately 200 acres of land. It is Australia’s leading horticulture SmartFarm research facility. Tatura SmartFarm has a 10% increase in marketable yield per hectare, a 20% increase in product value, and a 20% increase in production efficiency. We got to explore many different research projects such as the Sundial Orchard and the Fruit Analytics Facility. Tatura SmartFarm uses technologies to enhance precision and efficiencies not only in orchard management, but also in fruit management. Examples include smart-tracking of trees and fruit, smart measurement of trees and fruit growth and development, smart data-driven irrigation scheduling, variable rate data-driven orchard operations, and smart orchard connectivity. Students got the opportunity to pick apples off the trees on this tour. The Fruit Analytics Facility has a fruit phenomics platform that enables individual fruit from the experimental orchards to be measured for qualities like color, size, and maturity. If there is one thing students can take away from this trip, it is that most operations are trying to become more automated to reduce labor cost, while increasing productivity and quality.

This is a few rows of the sundial orchard. Each row was affected differently, for example, one row was more sunburnt than the other rows.

Pears at the Tatura SmartFarm.

Flood irrigation has been used for 100’s of years in Australia to help produce bountiful harvest in dryer regions. Water used to be very cheap and it wasn’t an issue when properties were over irrigated and only utilizing 50-60% of water applied to a paddock. Within the last 20 years, Australia has faced many droughts and water right shortages causing action to be taken. Rubicon Waters has been a large factor in the progress that has been made in increasing efficiency of water. Using automated technology, precision measurements, and integrated sensors Rubicon has been able to achieve 85-90% water use efficiency and increased production. A main driver behind this was switching from a low flow over a long period of time to a high flow over a short period of time. This helps to reduce the amount of waterlogged plants and applies water at the times when the plants need it, therefore boosting production. This system is monitored by soil moisture sensors and water flow sensors paired with satellite imagery and weather forecasts to predict the correct amount of water needed. This increased the water usage efficiency. Rubicon has been doing more and more work in the drier regions of the United States to assist with water shortage issues that Australia has been feeling for years.

            To wrap up the day we headed back to Melbourne where we will be staying the night to prepare to fly to Cairns in the morning.