RED Grant helps Toowoomba fertiliser manufacturer improve crop performance
Grassdale Feedlot
8 August 2024
State-of-the-art equipment to help strengthen the cropping industry will be installed at a manufacturing plant on the Western Downs with the help of a Round Five Rural Economic Development Grant.
Toowoomba beef feedlotter and manure-based fertiliser manufacturer Mort & Co is installing equipment that applies living bacterial inoculants onto its granular fertisilier.
Mort & Co Chief Executive Officer Stephen O’Brien said the new inoculant products would extend the survival of bacterium and increase the reliability of legume crops in Australia’s cropping system.
“Specialised manufacturing equipment will be installed at Mort & Co Fertilisers manufacturing plant to apply living bacterial inoculants onto granular fertiliser,” Mr O’Brien said.
“This will significantly extend the survival of the bacterium and increase the reliability of legume and pulse nodulation and nitrogen fixation rates in legume crops such as mungbeans and chickpeas.”
Mr O’Brien said the inoculated granules would also help save time and application costs and be able to be used in certified organic farming operations while putting carbon back into soil.
“The inclusion of humic composted beef feedlot manure into high value organic fertiliser provides sustainability benefits for the broader livestock and grains industry as it strives to reduce its carbon footprint across the entire supply chain.”
The project will create up to five short-term jobs and two long-term jobs.
Grants are available for up to $200,000 with a 50 per cent cash contribution requirement from applicants to fund projects which generate economic and employment opportunities related to primary production value chains across rural and remote Queensland.
Over five years, the Queensland Government’s RED Grants program has provided a total of $13.3 million in funding to support 59 successful regional agribusiness projects, worth more than $52.4 million and estimated to create over 2,500 new direct and indirect jobs.
The Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA) administers the RED Grant scheme on behalf of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
For more information about the RED Grant scheme, visit the RED Grant scheme page.
