On Saturday 6th May, almost 40 people gathered at the eastern end of Tanah Marah Rd, Margaret River to discuss options for blue gums after harvesting and a range of other topics.
"Thanks for organising an excellent SWAN field day last Saturday. Apart from the excellent autumn weather, the field day was interesting and informative and demonstrated clearly the importance of landowners deciding on their objectives at an early stage of their agroforestry/tree-farming enterprise." LM
"I found the day very informative indeed and learnt a lot. I like the idea of habitat for cockatoos but pines are such a long term prospect." LB
"Thank you for organising and running a very interesting and varied field day on Saturday. It was fascinating to see some different perspectives on previously forested land, and the lifestyle utility drivers of some owners decision making." BB
Notes on SWAN Field Day – Saturday 6 May 2017
Options after blue gums and more
by Gary Brennan
Site 1 Jeff and Stella Ibbott’s property
The first stop was at Jeff and Stella Ibbott’s who have approximately 76 ha with 60 ha planted to blue gums, which has now been harvested. In the next 5 years they want to clean-up their property by removing the blue gum stumps and develop a mixture of agricultural activities, including a 10 ha blue gum pulpwood plantation. The remainder of the farm will be for grazing and growing sawlog trees.
Cleaning-up the farm after harvesting 60 ha of blue gums has been a challenge for Jeff and Stella. They considered ripping and grinding out the stumps, but thought it would be too expensive and decided to first kill the re-sprouting coppice, and then make an overall plan for the property. For environmental reasons, Jeff decided to minimise the chemical usage and sprayed directly onto the individual shoots, using a backpack sprayer plus a spray unit mounted on a quad bike. Approximately 30 ha of tree trash were windrowed to allow the quad bike safe access to the re-sprouting stumps.
He had reasonable success spraying when the coppice was at least 1 m tall and had a greater leaf area to absorb the chemical. Other issues faced were obtaining clean (clay free) water and working around strong wind conditions.
Jeff and Stella plan to continue spraying the coppice, but may use a commercial blanket spray treatment instead of individually spraying each coppice shoot.
They plan to burn windrows and areas of trash, and then seed the ash bed areas with a low cost mix of rye/clover.
You can watch the video from this site on YouTube
A group discussion followed Jeff’s outline and experience. The option of raking up the debris and allowing it to rot was suggested as a cheap option to remove the trash and return nutrients and organic matter to the soil, conserve soil moisture and reduce erosion. A downside to this is the trash may also cause access problems and present a fire hazard. Another option is to poison the stumps, wait until they decay, then remove them with a loader.
Davin Gibellini (WAPRES) summarised the returns from blue gum pulpwood crops. Currently returns are less than $200/ha, down from a few years ago where prices were $600/ha. Overall the markets are good with strong demand from both Japan and China, which should continue for the next 5 years. WAPRES is contracting their operations to the high rainfall areas, which give higher yields.
Davin said professional advice was required if you are considering growing blue gum, as the returns vary due to many factors.
Options after blue gums and more
by Gary Brennan
Site 1 Jeff and Stella Ibbott’s property
The first stop was at Jeff and Stella Ibbott’s who have approximately 76 ha with 60 ha planted to blue gums, which has now been harvested. In the next 5 years they want to clean-up their property by removing the blue gum stumps and develop a mixture of agricultural activities, including a 10 ha blue gum pulpwood plantation. The remainder of the farm will be for grazing and growing sawlog trees.
Cleaning-up the farm after harvesting 60 ha of blue gums has been a challenge for Jeff and Stella. They considered ripping and grinding out the stumps, but thought it would be too expensive and decided to first kill the re-sprouting coppice, and then make an overall plan for the property. For environmental reasons, Jeff decided to minimise the chemical usage and sprayed directly onto the individual shoots, using a backpack sprayer plus a spray unit mounted on a quad bike. Approximately 30 ha of tree trash were windrowed to allow the quad bike safe access to the re-sprouting stumps.
He had reasonable success spraying when the coppice was at least 1 m tall and had a greater leaf area to absorb the chemical. Other issues faced were obtaining clean (clay free) water and working around strong wind conditions.
Jeff and Stella plan to continue spraying the coppice, but may use a commercial blanket spray treatment instead of individually spraying each coppice shoot.
They plan to burn windrows and areas of trash, and then seed the ash bed areas with a low cost mix of rye/clover.
You can watch the video from this site on YouTube
A group discussion followed Jeff’s outline and experience. The option of raking up the debris and allowing it to rot was suggested as a cheap option to remove the trash and return nutrients and organic matter to the soil, conserve soil moisture and reduce erosion. A downside to this is the trash may also cause access problems and present a fire hazard. Another option is to poison the stumps, wait until they decay, then remove them with a loader.
Davin Gibellini (WAPRES) summarised the returns from blue gum pulpwood crops. Currently returns are less than $200/ha, down from a few years ago where prices were $600/ha. Overall the markets are good with strong demand from both Japan and China, which should continue for the next 5 years. WAPRES is contracting their operations to the high rainfall areas, which give higher yields.
Davin said professional advice was required if you are considering growing blue gum, as the returns vary due to many factors.
John Everard answering questions
Site 2 “Three Sheds Farm” - John and Kylie Everard’s property
This property is about 42 ha, after the sub-division of the Dempster Tree Farm.
John and Kylie want to convert most of their blue gum plantations to pasture for grazing cattle and sheep. Harvesting occurred in late 2016 with site rehabilitation commencing soon afterwards. This involved:
John thought the E-mulcher for mulching stumps and trash didn’t work as the volume of trash was too much for the mulcher to handle. It was better to push the trash into windrows then burn it. He also found that the stumps in the burnt windrows were harder than those outside the windrows, making them harder the mulch. After a mild trash burn there were still some large pieces of trash which needed to be removed in another operation.
The video of the presentation can be seen on YouTube.
Removing stumps can be costly, and can be carried out later. It was mentioned that retaining stumps can be a problem when cutting hay as the stumps can damage machinery.
Greg Hodgson suggested retaining trash, particularly in drier areas as this retains moisture in the soil. Brad Barr (WESPINE) suggested that leaving slash in the rows increased growth by 85 per cent, due to retaining moisture, nutrients and carbon in the soil, although this was a short term benefit. He suggested it was cheaper to punch holes in the slash, than remove it, although this is only an option when re-planting to trees.
In the karri forest, stump-pulling machines were used in the mid-90’s to pull out re-growth karri trees and their stumps to help control the root rotting fungi Armillaria spp. This machine was effective on a trial basis, but not used on a commercial scale.
This property is about 42 ha, after the sub-division of the Dempster Tree Farm.
John and Kylie want to convert most of their blue gum plantations to pasture for grazing cattle and sheep. Harvesting occurred in late 2016 with site rehabilitation commencing soon afterwards. This involved:
- Pushing up trash with a loader and burning it
- Mulching stumps with an E-mulcher
- Erecting paddock fences
- Levelling tree rows with a tractor towing a railway line
- Picking up and removing logs and sticks
- Disk harrowing across the tree rows, i.e. at right angles to the tree rows, and then ploughing between tree rows
- Liming, fertilising and seeding the paddocks
- Future work at ‘Three Sheds Farm’
- Manage coppice in a blue gum windbreak
- Establish other trees and shrubs in the windbreak to act as a visual screen.
John thought the E-mulcher for mulching stumps and trash didn’t work as the volume of trash was too much for the mulcher to handle. It was better to push the trash into windrows then burn it. He also found that the stumps in the burnt windrows were harder than those outside the windrows, making them harder the mulch. After a mild trash burn there were still some large pieces of trash which needed to be removed in another operation.
The video of the presentation can be seen on YouTube.
Removing stumps can be costly, and can be carried out later. It was mentioned that retaining stumps can be a problem when cutting hay as the stumps can damage machinery.
Greg Hodgson suggested retaining trash, particularly in drier areas as this retains moisture in the soil. Brad Barr (WESPINE) suggested that leaving slash in the rows increased growth by 85 per cent, due to retaining moisture, nutrients and carbon in the soil, although this was a short term benefit. He suggested it was cheaper to punch holes in the slash, than remove it, although this is only an option when re-planting to trees.
In the karri forest, stump-pulling machines were used in the mid-90’s to pull out re-growth karri trees and their stumps to help control the root rotting fungi Armillaria spp. This machine was effective on a trial basis, but not used on a commercial scale.
David Woodcock talking about his coppice
Site 3. David and Anitra Woodcock’s property
This property was originally planted with blue gums and they would like to retain about a third as blue gums for timber and possibly eucalyptus oil production. Another third will have the coppice sprayed and returned to pasture. They want to re-vegetate a wetland area and develop a wildlife corridor. In the ‘north-east home paddock’ they want to plant ornamental deciduous trees and oaks inoculated with truffles. Other parts of the farm will be planted to trees, including spotted gum, jarrah, karri, sheoak and other eucalypts.
Following harvesting in winter 2016, David sprayed the resulting coppice with Glyphosate without dilution, immediately after cutting with a chainsaw. This produced an effective kill.
Bob Hingston suggested that ‘Round-up’ at a 10 per cent concentration is effective when applied to freshly cut coppice stumps. Adding a wetting agent, e.g. ‘Pulse’, gives a better up-take of chemical into the leaves. The best time for spraying is either side of winter when the weather conditions are favourable for coppice growth.
The video of the presentation can be seen on YouTube.
This property was originally planted with blue gums and they would like to retain about a third as blue gums for timber and possibly eucalyptus oil production. Another third will have the coppice sprayed and returned to pasture. They want to re-vegetate a wetland area and develop a wildlife corridor. In the ‘north-east home paddock’ they want to plant ornamental deciduous trees and oaks inoculated with truffles. Other parts of the farm will be planted to trees, including spotted gum, jarrah, karri, sheoak and other eucalypts.
Following harvesting in winter 2016, David sprayed the resulting coppice with Glyphosate without dilution, immediately after cutting with a chainsaw. This produced an effective kill.
Bob Hingston suggested that ‘Round-up’ at a 10 per cent concentration is effective when applied to freshly cut coppice stumps. Adding a wetting agent, e.g. ‘Pulse’, gives a better up-take of chemical into the leaves. The best time for spraying is either side of winter when the weather conditions are favourable for coppice growth.
The video of the presentation can be seen on YouTube.
Lesley Bremner describes the different stages
Site 4. Wirring Ridge - Lesley Bremner’s farm
Following harvesting, Lesley was faced with a large amount of debris containing many large branches. Lesley’s aim is to return the land to good quality pasture with no stumps. Stumps would be unsuitable for running horses. While she didn’t want to burn the trash and lose nutrients, she decided burning was necessary. The operations carried out by Lesley were:
Lesley made the following points about removing her blue gums:
Following harvesting, Lesley was faced with a large amount of debris containing many large branches. Lesley’s aim is to return the land to good quality pasture with no stumps. Stumps would be unsuitable for running horses. While she didn’t want to burn the trash and lose nutrients, she decided burning was necessary. The operations carried out by Lesley were:
- Burning the litter in-situ
- Pulling out the stumps
- Windrowing
- Piling into suitable-sized heaps for burning
- Using a finer stick-rake to push up for further burning
- Ploughing
- Harrowing
- Drill-seeding and fertilizing
Lesley made the following points about removing her blue gums:
- Blue-gums are very flammable - both green and dry.
- Well-grown, healthy trees are an advantage to the grower but a disadvantage in the clean-up stage.
- In certain areas it was found that pulling up the stumps also pulled up clay.
- However rough handling of the stumps removed more soil and clay than anticipated.
- Windrowing allowed the machine to roughly fill in the stump holes as it went.
- Size of heaps for burning and manageability became important.
- At the second push-up stage the use of a smaller machine (such as a Positrack) with a stick-rake left a cleaner finish as it had more manoeuvrability and could collect the remaining small wood.
- Ploughing to mix the already-damaged soil.
- Choice of seed to provide feed as well as deliver organic matter to the soil.
- It is expected that fertilizer types will be an on-going factor to rebuild the soil over time.
- Good operators make a major difference and cannot be under-estimated.
