Lucerne becomes big overseas business

Press, 7 July 1977, Page 18

Lucerne becomes big overseas business

Lucerne is big business in Marlborough and an important overseas fundseamer.

Visitors to the province, particularly those travelling through Woodbourne, will have seen the tall stacks and their wisps of smoke during the spring and summer months, and cropping of the harvest is now a commonplace sight throughout the district. The plant at Marlborough, operated by U.E.B. Marlborough Protein, Ltd, is the largest of its kind in New Zealand and annually produces slightly more than half of the country’s total pelleted lucerne. Three of these dehydration plants were established in New Zealand in 1956 and a further seven drying plants have been established since.

About 80 Marlborough growers supply the factory under contract during a season which lasts from early September to mid-May. Marlborough is ideally suited to the growing of

lucerne. It has an excellent climate and a very favourable water table. The combination ensures heavy cropping and it is doubtful if any other area in New Zealand can match Marlborough’s yields of dry matter per hectare. Japan is New Zealand’s main market for the end product. Japan has an average usage of about 400,000 tonnes annually. Most of New Zealand’s export of 38,000 tonnes of dehydrated lucerne goes there, but other markets in the Far and Middle East are also supplied. To obtain the highest quality product the lucerne must be processed as quickly as possible after cutting. The lucerne is quickly fed into drying drums where its moisture content is reduced from an average of 78 per cent to about 18 per cent. The process reaches a stage where aditives can be incorporated. It is then pelleted or bagged as meal. Almost 25 per cent of the end product is protein,

which has prompted research workers to find a process to produce human edible protein from lucerne and other related crops. Some encouraging results have been obtained.

The lucerne pellets are stored at both Picton, where silos to contain 4200 tonnes of pellets have been constructed along with bulk handling plant, and at the factory where a further 2700 tonnes can be stored. The pellets are exported from Picton by bulk in about four or five shipments each season. The greatest problem faced by the industry is one of rising oil costs. Some indication of the factory’s immense oil consumption can be obtained from the fact that more than 2300 litres of oil is used an hour in the dehydration process. During the season, the plant operates 24 hours a day, at an average of about 6.5 days a week. Over a 37-week season, the plant therefore consumes about 8 million litres of oil.