Information needed about lupins

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33650, 27 September 1974, Page 9

Information needed about lupins

There are promising prospects for the use of the seed of sweet lupins in both human and animal foods, but according to information given to a meeting held recently at Lincoln College farmers generally have not got the knowledge yet to grow this crop satisfactorily. The meeting was timed to take advantage of the presence at the college of a large number of scientists from all parts of the country for another gathering, and also among those present were some representatives of commercial firms who are interested in the crop. Reports given to the meeting showed that procedures for growing the crop vary over the country and Mr N. J. Withers, who is a lecturer in agronomy at Massey University, said that the crop was getting a bad name because of failures due to such factors

as weed control and time of sowing etc. Dr N. G. Porter, of the Applied Biochemistry Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln, said that a problem was that development of an industry based on the seed was hampered by lack of volume of production simply because farmers did not know how to grow it. The meeting was told that in the Waikato area, for instance, with one exception yields had varied from nil to 25 bushels per acre, when a 40 to 45 bushels performance would be needed to rival maize, with a good price for the seed too. The need was seen for some sort of publication to guide farmers and Mr Withers offered to coordinate the material if those attending the meeting and woiking on lupins all over the country would send in their recommendations. A newsletter will also be sent to those doing research on lupins to keep them abreast with the work of their fellows. Mr Withers also offered to host a similar meeting to this year’s one next year. There was agreement that lupins were unlikely to be a one crop a year enterprise. Thus it was suggested that in the Waikato they might have a place sown in the autumn before maize was grown in the spring, and in the South Island, Mr C. T. Mortlock, an agronomist with Dalgety Agriculture at Timaru. said it would have to be a spring crop. That there are outlets for the crop if it can be grown satisfactorily there can be little doubt.

Mr G. W. Kitson, senior research economist at Lincoln College, said that Japan represented a very big market for soya beans to sustain her livestock production. She could not herself support extensive cropping. Last year she took 25 per cent of soya beans in world trade and by 1982 was likely to be only able to provide about 12 per cent of her own soya bean requirements. The Japanese were sensitive of their dependence on the United States for soya bean imports and were now developing a policy of fostering soya bean production elsewhere and importing this production. Another alternative was to diversify into the use of substitute products and it was believed that white lupins could be a substitute. Samples of lupins had been sent to Japan and there had been considerable interest in them. The indication was that there could be a massive market, assuming of course that it was economical to grow the crop here, and that was a question that he did not have the answer to yet. An advantage with lupins could be that they could be imported into Japan without going through the State organisation, so that they would bring a much higher price. Mr Graham Pearson, a research officer at the pig research centre at Massey University, expressed fears that Japan might take away lupin seed from potential New Zealand users. He reported on a trial in which ground lupin seed had been used to provide from nil to 37 per cent of the diet of pigs white they grew from 25 to 85 kilograms weight. At the 37 per cent level the lupins were providing all of the supplementary protein required with a cereal.

■‘We were very pleased with the results,” he said. “On the lupin diet the pigs performed as well or better than on fish meal, but it is possible that we might have had a poor quality fish meal as a comparison. However, it certainly looks as though lupins have a potential.” Mr G. D. Hill, a lecturer in the plant science department at Lincoln, who presided over the meeting, said he was also interested in the use of lupin meal in a milk replacer diet for calves. On the possible use of lupin seed for human food, Mr Hill reported interesting a Christchurch firm which handles American synthetic meat products in the possibility of the use of lupin seed as a substitute for soya bean in the products, and they had been supplied with 1001 b of one variety and 100 grams of another three. And to make the point that lupin seed can be used successfully in human food, those attending the meeting were invited to sample the handiwork of Mrs P. Horn, a demonstrator in the plant science department at the college, who had baked a health loaf and scones out of 33 per cent lupin flour, and cheese and bacon biscuits out of 50 per cent lupin flour. Dr E. L. Hove, of thfe Applied Biochemistry Division at Palmerston North, noted that experience in some areas of the country, where hares had been a problem with lupins growing in trials, was an indication that lupins had something superior about them.