Don't like their chances of finding 30,000 hectares to stitch up the Woodside contract ... going to need a defined price on carbon to get farmers even remotely interested in mallees. I don't doubt we have an ETS coming but with agriculture exempt from it, it will be hard to convince farmers to lock land away for 100 years. Still a lot of work to be done and they need to choose the right tree crops.
New crops appearing all the time ...
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Biodiesel crops being planted near WA mines
Tuesday, 14/07/2009
Western Australian pastoralists are trialing biodiesel crops in the state's southern rangelands, in the hope of an alternate income stream.
The four-hectare plot of moringa trees was planted at Albion Downs station, near Leinster, in September, and pastoralists have already harvested their first crop.
The large seeds collected will be crushed, to determine if the oil they produce is fit to supply nearby nickel mines.
Pastoralist Doug Brownlie says he's hoping to harvest 1500 litres of fuel per hectare once the trees have reached maturity.
"We are still trialing how much water to put on them and how long we are going to put water on them and fertilising," he says.
"So it could be two or three years down the track till we find out what to do to get the best growth and yield from them, so anything between three and five years really."
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200907/s2625476.htm
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