In The Chair: President Carmel
Host: Shane Young
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Yanco Valley Walnuts
We were welcomed by Shane Young, and it was noted that it is nearly 6 years since we last visited the site at Yanco. There are 450 ha of walnuts at the Yanco site and 120 ha at Murrami. These have now started to produce reasonable quantities of nuts. At first the nuts were transported to Shepparton for processing but there are now sufficient nuts to justify a new processing plant at Yanco.
Shane then showed us the production plant.
The walnuts are removed from the tree by a shaker. They are then swept into windrows and picked up by a harvester and loaded into a truck or bins. The truck is then emptied into a pit.
The raw nuts are then elevated to a machine that aspirates the load to remove light material and sticks and stones are removed before de-hulling and aspirating again. The nuts are then passed through a colour sorter to re-cycle unhulled nuts before elevating to the dryers.
The dryers use air heated to about 45C and the nuts dried to 8% moisture.
Once dried the walnuts are sorted into 3 sizes – below 32; 32-36; and above 36.
The nuts are inspected at many stages during the process and damaged or cracked nut removed before packing in 10kg bags for sale to a Victorian distributor.
The plant can process 12 to 13 tonne per 8-hour shift and employs about 30 workers during the processing season.
Other interesting facts:
Waste (particularly hulls) is removed into a bin and turned into compost for the walnut trees.
Workers are mainly from Vanuatu and are very diligent.
The walnuts are irrigated by the furrow system and, surprisingly, use about the same amount of water as those on drip.
There was insufficient power to run the plant, so it is run via a generator.
Matt Thanked Shane before we all adjourned to the Yanco Hotel for a thoroughly delicious meal. This was a very successful vocational visit. Thank you, Matt.
Jennifer made a particular friend on the night.
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Brain Teaser
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Director’s Reports
- President Carmel
- Don’t forget that this week’s meeting is on Wednesday night
- The meeeting on 24th April will be a casual one as it is the night before ANZAC day.
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The Joys of Flying
400 passengers but only 200 meals were loaded onto a flight from Delhi to New York City. It was only discovered after take-off, when the flight attendants started going through their preparations for the meals. So, the airline had bungled, and the crew was in a fix. However, one smart flight attendant had an idea. A couple of hours into the flight she nervously announced, "Ladies and gentlemen; we don't know how this happened, but we have over 400 people on board, but only 200 dinners. Anyone who is kind enough to give up their meal to someone else, will receive unlimited free liquor for the duration of the flight!"
Her next announcement came six hours later: "Ladies and gentlemen, if anyone wants to change their mind, we still have 180 dinners available."
Her next announcement came six hours later: "Ladies and gentlemen, if anyone wants to change their mind, we still have 180 dinners available."
A: This is an optical illusion. The lines are straight, but the staggered squares make them appear to be bent.
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