THE SOUTHERN
Part of the Farmer Group Rural Newspapers Covering Victoria Published since 1986
NOVEMBER, 2014
CARBON-NEUTRAL ISLAND
4-5
486 Whitehorse Road, Surrey Hills, 3127
WANDIN-SILVAN WRAP
SPRAYING FEATURE
14-15
18-19
Japanese investment yields crops and jobs By DAVID PALMER
S REDUCE SE OU GREENH SION IS GAS EM
CHILL OUT
IF YOUR SHED OR COOLROOM GETS TOO HOT IN SUMMER
THE ORIGINAL LIQUID THERMAL INSULATION
Reduce inside temperature dramatically, cut air conditioning and refrigeration costs. Ideal for trucks; sheds; warehouses; offices; silos; dairies. Increase productivity. Increases metal life, which will SAVE YOU MONEY! Thermoshield’s high thermal properties are due to millions of hollow ceramic beads that cluster together and provide dead air space
For more information
Ph: 1300 551 099 Mob. 0417 563 955 PO Box 16, Silvan, VIC 3795 gavin@thermoshield.com.au www.thermoshield.com.au
Name:................................................................ .......................................................................... Address:............................................................ .......................................................................... P/Code:.........................Ph:...............................
t/04d04479/36-13
TOP SCOTS: Highland cattle were the feature breed at this year’s Royal Melbourne Show. Pictured are Christine Wallridge (left) and Bronwyn Stewart washing two of the Stewarts’ Sea Crest cattle the day before judging. Sea Crest later won the reserve senior champion bull award. There was a record entry of more than 30 Highland cattle paraded by more than six studs before judge Cameron Ormiston, who is the Queen’s Highland cattle herdsman at the Balmoral estate in Scotland. More regional Melbourne show results and photographs: pages 8, 9 and 12
KAITEKI Fresh Australia is to build a first-of-its-kind-outside-Asia hydroponic salad greens’ production facility at Bunyip, about 80 kilometres south east of Melbourne. It will employ about 40 people to crop and process leafy greens such as spinach and rocket. Mitsubishi Plastic Inc (MPI) had established Kaiteki Fresh Australia in collaboration with the Kaiteki Institute, a global research organisation that aims to meet twenty-first century challenges in energy, the environment and healthcare. MPI and the Kaiteki Institute have collaborated for a number of years on the development of next-generation hydroponic technologies that enable the rapid cultivation of green leafy salad plants and vegetables. The company has been trialling production under Australian conditions at the Department of Environment and Primary Industries’ Knoxfield facility in Melbourne’s east. Locally, MPI and the Kaiteki Institute, in collaboration with DEPI, managed to produce the same quality as the product grown in Japan, the company said. Kaiteki Fresh Australia chief executive Katsutoshi Ogihara said that his company was proud of its multi-million dollar investment.
“We will endeavor to start the delivery of safe and trusted ‘grown in Victoria’ leafy vegetables as soon as possible,” he said. “They will be grown without pesticides using our advanced production system.” Deputy Premier and Regional Development Minister Peter Ryan said that the new greenhouse facility would produce food crops with a fraction of the water and fertiliser used in traditional horticulture in a much shorter rotation. He said that there would be 20 harvests of green leafy vegetables per year compared with four using traditional soil-based production methods. Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group president Yoshimitsu Koboyashi last year officially set the Kaiteki company as the corporate brand for the Mitsubishi Group. “The Kaiteki Institute Inc looks 30 to 50 years into the future, but specific results are already coming to light in the agribusiness and healthcare sectors,” he said earlier this year. According to a mid-September blog by MCHG employeeYukaYoshizumi, Kaiteki is a Japanese word that conventionally means ‘comfortable’ or ‘pleasant’ for which there is no exact English equivalent. “It’s a word that is closely associated with state of well-being, symbiosis and harmony,” he said “We express a sustainable condition which is comfortable not only for people, but also for society and the Earth.”
Call the professionals today for on the spot service, genuine parts and advice
a division of Norwood Agriculture
“The complete agricultural driveline solution”
FACTORY 3, 16-20 DINGLEY AVE., DANDENONG 3175
PH. (03) 9794 5889 FAX (03) 9794 0272
Email: bypy@bypy.com.au Web: www.bypy.com.au For emergency A/H service call (03) 9794 5889
t/05d05777-v11/45-13
Trust only Bondioli & Pavesi and Bima for
g ting the farmin Proudly suppor nce 1950 community si