VICTORIAN Tree Farmers of the Year, Simon and Philippa Noble, will host a field day for tree growers later this month.
The Nobles combine tree production with prime lambs, aquaculture and tourism on their 167ha property between Rutherglen and Yarrawonga.
The trees are destined for commercial timber production and are irrigated with waste water from the the family's Murray cod hatchery.
Trees are also used to protect irrigation check banks, sequester carbon, provide shelter and shade for stock and improve the farm's aesthetics.
Simon and Phillipa's 6ha plantation of Sydney blue gum, spotted gum and Tasmanian blue gum was planted from 1995 to make use of the waste water from the hatchery.
The trees have been pruned to 12m using a boom lift with the aim of producing two sawlogs per tree and have been thinned to 300 stems per hectare in the first plantings and 400/ha in other plantations.
The Nobles manage the trees on a 20-year saw-log regime and hope to get several hundred cubic metres of timber per hectare at harvest. Guest speaker at the field day will be Michael Combe, from Koppers, Australia's largest pole producer.
There will also be a demonstration of a farm-tree gripper snipper, a tractor mounted small tree harvester, and boomlift tree pruner.
The field day, on November 21, will be preceded by the annual meeting of the North East Australian Forest Growers.
For details, phone Philippa Noble on 0427 154 672.
