Macquarie Oil Company: Things looking sunny for producer

THINGS are looking sunny for a producer of canola oil, who wants to see more grown locally in Tasmania. KAROLIN MACGREGOR reports.

Growth industry: Macquarie Oil operator Rob Henry in a field of canola at Cressy. Inset, from top right: Mr Henry at the oilpress; the paddock in bloom; canola flowerheads; canola-oil meal. Pictures: Chris Kidd

INCREASING demand for canola products has created an opportunity to expand production for Macquarie Oil Company.

Mr Henry at the oilpress.

The business is run by Rob Henry, who says demand from the state’s aquaculture and stockfeed industries is creating opportunities for the canola industry to expand.

Mr Henry is encouraging growers to get on board.

The Macquarie Oils business at the Henrys' Cressy farm was originally started in 2005 using waste seed from the poppy industry.

While the business still processes approximately 400 tonnes of poppy seed each year, Mr Henry said canola was now their main focus and each year the company processed about 6000 tonnes of canola.

Of that total, about 2000 tonnes is grown in Tasmania with the rest imported from the mainland.

This is something Mr Henry would like to see change.

“Ideally I’d like to be able to source it all form Tasmania,” he said.

“There is a significant amount of cost involved in bringing it in from the mainland and finding seed that meets out non-GMO standards is getting more and more difficult.”

The paddock in bloom.

Mr Henry said because of the state’s cooler climate, the canola seed grown in Tasmania had a higher oil content.

“The more I can buy here, the more I can pay the growers so it would be great to see more people including it in their rotations.”

Mr Henry sad the introduction of new dual-purpose canola varieties, which can also be grazed, had also been a major step forward for the industry.

“When you add up the returns you get from the seed and then the grazing value on top, it compares very well to other crops,” he said.

“It’s brilliant feed, you can easily fatten lambs on it and it’s available through the winter when there’s not a lot of other feed around.”

A 40ha dual-purpose crop on the outskirts of Cressy was used this winter to fatten and finish about 950 Merino wether lambs.

Canola is also very useful as a break crop in rotations and allows for good weed control.

Mr Henry said canola’s biofumigant qualities were another bonus.

He said research had shown that wheat crops grown after canola consistently produced yields 25 per cent higher.

“Farmers need to look at it as part of a rotation and it works very well in that sense,” he said.

Canola flowerheads.

Most of the crops are grown dryland and yield between two and three tonnes a hectare. However, under irrigation canola can produce up to four tonnes per hectare.

Mr Henry said the crop was also straightforward to grow and did not have high input costs.

Canola seed at Macquarie Oils is cold-pressed, which produces oil and also canola meal.

To improve efficiency, about nine months ago Mr Henry installed a new German-built press and will soon put in a second one.

A new silo and dedicated canola intake will also soon be installed at the plant.

As well as increasing the amount of seed they can process each day, the new presses are also more effective at oil extraction.

Ideally after the seed has been pressed, the leftover meal should have an oil content of 8 per cent to 10 per cent.

Each tonne of seed produces about 300kg of oil.

Mr Henry said on average Tasmanian canola seed had an oil content of about 45 per cent.

This compared with mainland seed which contained an average of 42 per cent oil.

Canola-oil meal.

Oil from the factory is sold to a number of customers around the state, including fish-feed manufacturer Skretting and other businesses like Pure Foods and Tasmanian Stockfeed Services.

The canola meal is also being used for stockfeed production.

Mr Henry said some was being bought by dairy farmers who include it in their feed rations.

After a reduction in the area of poppies now being grown in Tasmania, Mr Henry said this could open up more ground for canola crops.

However, Mr Henry said Tasmania’s extremely low tolerance level for genetically modified organisms could create a problem for imported canola seed in the future.

He said even sourcing enough seed to grow 6000 tonnes of canola would be difficult under the state’s current tolerance levels and it was an issue that could affect the whole industry.