Monday, May 21, 2018

Day 9

Barron Gorge Falls seen during the Sky Rail through the Rain Forest
SDSU students walking along the boardwalks and taking in the World Heritage Rainforest
Today we began with a 7.5km trip on the sky rail over 900,000-hectares of tropical rainforest that covers approximately 0.12% of the total landmass of Australia. The World Heritage Rainforest is protected and preserved by the International World Heritage list. After getting off of the sky rail onto the board walks, we saw a beautiful waterfall along with many different plants and tree species. The tropical rainforest is home to over 12,260 plant species, and 678 of those are not found anywhere else in the world. Along one of the boardwalks, we were able to see one animal in the rainforest: a wild bush turkey.

After leaving the sky rail, we traveled to an avocado, mango, and lime orchard called Blue Sky Produce. The operation is family owned and managed by Matthew Fealy.
Mathew Frealy discussing his avacodo orchard with the students

Mathew Frealy discussing his irrigation system
They have owned the farm for 5 years, and on 62 hectares have 5,100 avocado trees, 3,000 mango trees, and 800, lime trees. From the time they have owned the farm, they have increased production from 3000 trays to 41,000 trays of avocados to which Fealy attributes to mulching. Most of all the mulch comes from the trimmings of the trees that are mulched and put back on the soil. The farm’s biggest cost is labor, because everything is hand picked and hand packed. The second highest cost to the farm is water to the irrigation system. Fealy’s grandfather helped build Tinaroo dam that supplies water to many local farms. The farm changed from a sprinkler irrigation system to drip irrigation due to reduced water loss from evaporation and increased efficiency in getting water to 40cm in the soil. All of the trees are grafted to reduce time to maturity, increase production, and to increase disease resistance. His main method of pollination is using a large sprayer and just letting the fan blast the trees so a large amount of pollen goes into the air to pollinate the other trees. Fealy’s biggest tip for consumers was to buy in preparation for a meal, and not the day of. Also buy a hard avocado, and DO NOT squeeze them as it will bruise the avocado.

One of Mungalli Creek’s Jersey cows enjoying her pasture meal
The final stop for the day was the Mungalli Creek Biodynamic Dairy. They are a family owned operation, and believe their food should be as natural as possible. Here, we tried various types of their cheeses, yogurts, milk and other products that they make on the farm and locally. They currently support nine farms with their business, and milk 600 cows themselves. They also maintain 4,000 free-range laying hens. A Biodynamic certified farm is one step further than a certified organic farm. The difference between them is mostly due to their soil, which is all natural and never treated with anything. The soil is rich with nutrients due to tapping into the biology of the microorganisms that lie within the soil.
A view of the biodynamic dairy farm’s dairy herd in their paddock
They have a mixed cowherd of Jersey, Swiss Brown, Aussie Red, and Friesian. The herd produces 14-16 liters a day per cow. They use natural remedies like essential oils for treating the cows for mastitis. Their biggest customers are Woolworths and Cole’s grocery stores, as well as specialty shops along the eastern seaboard of Australia. The group ended the day by traveling to Bedrock Hotel in Mount Surprise.
One of the many products produced by Mungalli Creek Dairy 

Ellys Johnson, Callie Kukuchka, and Rachel Bakko

No comments:

Post a Comment