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Hi Daniel, Congratulations! Will be looking forward to many more videos from you. I know, its totally inappropriate for this video, what am going to ask you about; but I hope to get some suggestions. Am from India, from south whre the temperatures can get quite high in summer months ( March, April, May) might even touch 45 deg celcius. The lowest can be around the winter months ( Dec, Jan , feb), which is around 28 deg celcius. In a nutshell an average day temperature during the year varies between 30 to 40 deg celsius and night temperature varies from 24 to 32 deg celcius. There are exceptions during summer months where it might touch 45 deg for a couple of weeks. Am very much interested to start Macadamia farm, i own reasonable amount of land. My issue is that people in India started supply seedlings/ grafted plants but none could gave a satisfactory answer regarding the correct variety to plant for my climatic conditions. There are few people in our area which has same temperature, has planted macadamia ( the variety they call here is 816). Its been 2 years since they have planted and the vegetative growth so far is good among them but weather they can be able bear the fruit or not still need to be seen, probably in 18 to 24 months. Am in a big dilemma on what to do. Am simply hoping if you can shed some light on this. I know different country, different conditions, its not fair on my part to expect a startight answer. But I know you from your videos that you are an honest man , never backs down to share anything regarding macademia farming. Since Australia can be quite hot ( i have heard the temperatures can go very high) can you please mention the varities that are grown in hot Australia conditions. Atleast thats a start for me !

Hi Daniel, thanks for the video. Chatting to my agronomist this week regarding the fungus in the flower issue, he says it’s not really a problem in small trees as with husk spot? How is the baby parade flower going? My babies are flowering very heavily on the trees >4/6 YO after last years application of compost.

Hi why some tree cut

Thanks for the wonderful information. I manage our family orchard in north of Iran with about 30% of it with Macadamia trees, and I could feel and absorb every bit of information you gave. Wish you a blessed harvest, and thanks again 🙏🏼 💐🙌🏼

We call it dry flower. We are gearing up to spray for it in the next couple of weeks. We have been spraying Merivon for about 4 years now. It's basically Cabrio with an extra chemical. I think we will stick with the tractor sprayer set-up the coverage just can't be replicated by a drone.

The way I look at it. You pay maybe $15k for a drone to spray top down. Or you pay $90k for a tractor and $40k for an airblaster to spray up from the bottom.

Nice work Daniel, they are predicting a wet spring/ flooding this year.

Older trees look good Daniel, congratulations on a half decade of macadamia farming. When are the big projects coming up regarding row removal and such?

Congrats on 5 years, Daniel. All looking good there with your trees. I certainly look forward to your informative and entertaining videos. Here's to the next 5 years 🍾

khu vườn mắc ca rộng lớn quá, rất đẹp😊

Your tree health has definitely improved since you first started posting videos, thats the benefit of videoing your orchard. I regularly film from the ground and also gather aerial drone footage in the orchard I look after, as it helps to detect small changes in tree health and in the canopy before and after pruning. Then, approximately 6 months later to check the progress.

Hello from Cambodia, I have 3 years old of Macadamia farm but it's doesn't produce fruit yet.

Thank you for the informative content Daniel!

i have done bachelor of agriculture science degree in India and I'm very fluent to communicate in english language and my dream to do farming macadamia ❤

i want to work with you to gain experience about macadamia farming can you please sponsor me to get visa and get work experience with you ❤️

i want to work with you to gain experience about macadamia farming can you please sponsor me to get visa and get work experience with you ❤️

hello brother can you please provide plant I'm from India 🇮🇳 i want to do macadamia farming

hey my friend i want to work with you can please give me any farming job i have done bachelor of agriculture science from India

Have maca farm prices dropped? You still need at least a million dollars to buy one.

Hi, thanks for the video!! Can you suggest or shed some light on how to findout if the plant we are buying is good for commercial plantation. We are thinking of starting in India.

What is the minimum height I keep a macadamia tree pruned to, in a small backyard and still have it Fruit?

A little car is pretty handy on a farm for going to town and back. Our Nissan Micra was fine as a farm car but could not do everything a maca farmer needs to do. When I hired equipment it was delivered and picked up which cost extra. The little Micra could not tow. We hired a van to transport trees from a nursery to our farm. We recently bought a new car, a Toyota RAV4. We bought it in the hope it will be okay for city and country driving. We had a tow bar fitted and it’s much bigger in the back than the Nissan. It actually uses less fuel than our old car because it’s a hybrid. The only downside is it expensive, more expensive than our tractor. So I don’t have much money to spend on farm stuff. However what I have on the farm should be enough though I think I will buy a flail mower to crush the setaria grass.

Boeing 737-800 😂

I drive an Isuzu Ute/Bakkie with a canopy. I transport most of my own requirements. I pull a fair size trailer when required.

Interesting, thanks for video. I'm a bit surprised there aren't some growers selling direct to public for reasonable prices. I did find some but their prices seem to be much higher than the supermarket (eg. Brother Mountain Macadamias $70/kg !) Compared to the Farmer Coop factory price (in the middle of Macadamia territory), the supermarket price doesn't seem too bad at around 50% higher.

Thanks, for 25 yrs neighbours cows smash every property around here and they've got away with it,,I mean they haven't even parted with a steak for anybody,,,well one kicked the quarter panel off my gf,s car and the neighbour is denying it's her cows on the public road also where the damage occurred,,they are the only ppl to have cattle, I chased 17 of their untagged unbranded animals out ,,can't believe this woman is trying to deny everything

Hi Daniel, long time lurker, I thought it was about time I added my 2c. Thanks for covering many different topics relating to macadamia farms. I look after a farm in the northern rivers. From my experience, top working the trees and then grafting on a new variety have been unsuccessful due to wind damage breaking off the newly grafted wood, even after 2 years of growth. South Africa must have a calmer climate. Sunburn to the trunk of the tree being grafted to, Root death and wood rot from lack of photosynthesis from the new graft and nurse branches. The trees in question were about 30 years old, owns choice on H2 rootstock. They have since been removed completely and replaced.

Blancmange, living on the ceiling. I thought the song had a good dance beat though.😊

I want more video

Here is some advice if you or someone can challenge: 1. The Australian Constitution states where Federal law and state law conflict, Federal law prevails. Why does it not say that if state law and local council ruling conflict, that state law prevails? BECAUSE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The constitution states there shall only be federal and state government. Thus any legislation which creates a third tier of government is invalid. Local Council has NIL LAWFUL AUTHORITY. I bet they don't want this challenged in the high court. Only a referendum can create a third tier of government. 2. Is it state law or policy that says the farms in the area can't be subdivided?? If it is law, local council could not over rule if even if they were a legitimate tier of government. 3. I would imagine, putting the above aside, that the land and environment court would rule in favour of the state government policy, as they MUST TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE INTENTION OF THE LEGISLATOR. Or the intention of the government when making the policy. In this case the purpose is clear, so courts should not subvert the goal of preserving this as rare and valuable farmland for the needs of the food security of the country. Technical loopholes have no weight in the above argument. 4. A class action by the community could stop this happening on a wide scale. Or even an individual as a member of the community. Perhaps the cart fund raising and a sensible local lawyer who sees the importance of farmland can assist for small fee.

It was a little sad to see parts of loose goose and stockade being removed this week when I was there. Including the original grays nursery and dehusking sheds. It’s going to look very different in 5 years. In some ways I agree with others that serious nut production is now better suited to places like Bundy.

I also wonder whether governments are considering the long term as far as protecting prime agricultural land from housing development. Also I understand in Bundaberg where mining may adversely affect underground water used by macadamia farmers. On another video you mention a macadamia tree called stupid, what variety is it or you haven’t determined that?

Great video, Daniel! Thank-you. A nice look at that Lindendale farm again. There are so many good farms in the Northern Rivers it really is a shame to have it subdivided like that. Here in Japan they do something similar, chop up the side of a mountain (not farmland as that is protected and heavily subsidised), with great views, and build a 'holiday house community' with strata titles. Much smaller blocks than what you are talking about. Some of these communities are very beautiful but are not so popular as the houses age. And Japan is still very centralised in terms of residential population so not many even want to 'go bush’. Even after the COVID years.... But I hope the Byron Shire works out some alternative to help protect farmland. The Byron Hinterland is very special. It is hard to compare it to other farming areas in Australia. It’s more than just a row of trees on the side of a hill. It is a beautiful oasis of lush green and rolling hills. It provides valuable food. I know the bottom line is important, but as you said, I also think people need to keep in mind that once it’s gone, it’s gone. And it might encourage more subdivision...?

Interesting topic! Town planners create zones to minimise conflict. Surely local councils need to be empowered by state to create defensible farming areas. In this case Byron might feel that it needs more residential and determine the best areas for this to happen. Not perfect, but at least you keep the developers on a leash! A few observations though. Macadamias are food, but it is difficult to argue that they are an essential part of our diet. Healthy and nutritious treat that due to costs of producing will remain a treat for most of us. Which brings us to the next point. It's difficult to beat the markets. If Macadamias were profitable then those farms would have sold to farmers. They didn't because they lack economies of scale, they haven't had long term investment, the next generation of buyers aren't interested in pouring their off farm income and all their leisure time into a very low margin enterprise. Take a trip to Bundaberg and see farms on flat country with good soil and an irrigation scheme where tree counts begin at 10000 and rise to 100000 per unit. Long straight rows of the latest varieties that will churn out 4t/ha at 15 years. 3 or 4 thousand 40 year old and 15m tall H varieties on the side of a hill just can't make it in today's world as a stand alone enterprise. They are made even less viable when a "tree changer' is prepared and capable of paying $2 million for the house site with a view. The trees are just there to these people but their buying power prevents the few gen Z's who might be interested from getting involved. And there in a 'nutshell' you have most of the issues society faces and some of the reasons gen z are so depressed!

Real Estate agents and developers have a lot to answer for ! Forcing prices up to their advantage

The Howard Nugget slashers are made in Korea.

Very interesting to see all the equipment there, Daniel. I’ve just returned from a two day visit to our Grain South Africa annual exhibition, NAMPO. Absolutely mind blowing seeing the various types, makes and sizes of equipment available. Prices are mind blowing too😋 We have the multi-one available in SA but I haven’t seen the Robmac brand here. I’ll have a look out for it. NAMPO is definitely an exhibition any farm equipment/product manufacturer would want to be at if they want exposure in the SA market. Thanks again for the informative and interesting post, as always.

We really never do grow out of our Tonka toys, do we? ]:) Looks like a fun day out.

Thanks for the shout out! Yes my Club Car is similar to the green on for sale at $26k. It’s a good machine. We bought ours second hand for around $7k. I’ll have to spend money on ours soon as the front end is a bit worn out. The Primex field day looks good but there don’t seem to be very many people there. The idea of using plants to improve the soil sounds great. I’d be keen to learn more but I’ll have deal with the grass currently there. A couple of weeks ago we went to the Tocal field day. It was a lot busier than your day at Primex. We went there on a Saturday which could be why it was busier. I’m in the market for a flail mower to attach to my tractor and being able to talk to a large number of sales people selling them was of great value. Being able to compare what they said and listen to different points of view was great. I’ve pretty well settled on an Italian made mower which has hydraulic side shift that will hopefully help with mowing the grass between the trees.

One of our farms sent 2 trucks to marquis it came back at 16% and 18%, thankfully the farm I'm on the worst so far is 4% but we are now below 1%.

Hi Daniel, it’s nice to see your acknowledging that macadamias can handle water, if it goes away. The mounding does not do anything once that soil reaches an ongoing saturation point as observed in 2022, variety and localised soil conditions appear to contribute to tree death from my observations.

How does all that leaf lotter on the floor interfere with harvesting? Does that clog up the finger wheels?

Hi Daniel, I’ve been looking at TH-cam (as usual) AMS have been trialling tree shaking as part of the harvest process, are they still doing it and is there farms still using this harvesting method. My take on it is that it will shorten the orchard/tree harvesting time, but my concern is that the harvest will contain many immature nuts which wouldn’t be good for the bottom line, I would imagine. Might be a presentation in this for one of your programs. Cheers Ron HOLBROW

When the price are low the Nis to China prices offer are higher has the price rises the prices offer get more even a cross the process. So maybe a higher farm get price is better all around. Need to be at a fix price also.

It would be a serious mistake to rely on a _single destination_ export market, no matter how tempting the prices look at first glance... because they _won't_ last. When the local processors disappear, so will the favourable prices from China. They may even buy up the processing plant and ship it back to China (just like they did with rare earth mineral processing, turning that into an effective monopoly). Chinese consumers may prefer their nuts in shell, but that doesn't mean they won't _happily_ sell Australian nuts back to Australia (just as they do with seafood).

70% of Australian Macadamias are exported. I don't think the home market was short of Kernel, the export market was, but what did they expect at $1.50/kg? We were losing market share in our primary kernel buyers ( S Korean, Japan, Taiwan) before 2023.We abandoned Europe and USA, largely because of timezones, and a calve up ( behind closed doors) that gifted premium markets to Africa. Think WMO, who we still support via a processor levy that I assume is passed back to growers via a slightly lower price. SA farm gate prices were considerably better (30%) in 2023 and 2022, and they were above ours in previous years. Why? Do they just market it better than us ( or are our processors overheads far higher?) SA is predominantly Beaumont variety.As I understand it, this is a somewhat crinkled shell, average size, middle road kernel variety that grows well in SA. I guess having majority variety gives a more consistent product than our 10+ Hawaiian, 6 or so A varieties and the named ones. We're still losing money at $3.00. The processors are not. If they want growers, they need a plan because just asking us to lose money to support long-term kernel is insane. When will it end? I'm happy to support kernel if they have a plan. Are they branding product. Do they have control over sales organisation. What is their point of difference to kernel buyers. What are they doing to address inefficient processing.??? We should know because growers pay for everything- in the end. Not only are growers being asked to take a haircut to support kernel, they also have to wait up to 14 months for their money. I appreciate that they have to wait for their money, But, as you correctly pointed out, we have weekly labour and monthly input bills, including servicing debt at 7%. It's outrageous that normal business terms are EOM and our cash inflow is on the drip. If processors want to borrow money from growers, that's fine, so long as they pay market rate interest on it. I do understand that if you supply SGM or the 'tent' and are a shareholder you might see a dividend. But the dividend is only paid if they run an efficient operation, you'll still pay interest on the free loan because your bank is not a charity. It's not easy being a processor, and we have no real route to market without them, so we need to be careful. To be clear I want to work with processors. However I think we growers need to be consistent and united in our requests that they become more transparent in business and share their vision for the future.

Hi Daniel, have the weeds been bad for you this year? The farm at modanville next to the school, the trees there haven’t grown in the 15years I have regularly been driving past, that brown soil looks familiar.

I think your co-op guy you talked about has the right idea, start selling direct to whomever and cut-out the processors for the time being. That will force the local processors to be more friendly to the farmers. Perhaps that is whats needed for the Aussie Mac farmers.

tôi là một nông dân đang trồng cây mắc ca ở việt nam, tôi hiểu sự phát triển của cây mắc ca và nó mang lại cây che mát, khu rừng tự nhiên và tốt cho môi trường. mong rằng xẽ có nhiều người biết tới cây mắc ca và sử dụng chúng để cây này có thể phát triển khắp thế giới

Hi mate, I enjoy watching your videos, looking forward to the next one