What's New In Industry

Lucerne Meal Treatment

A comparatively new industry in the district is the treatment of lucerne to produce lucerne meal.

Having a high vitamin and protein content the meal, which is used for incorporation in poultry food, is shipped all over New Zealand and overseas.

The Meadowbank Lucerne Co., on Bushmere Road, has a treatment plant where a truckload of lucerne can be processed in half-an-hour.

The crop is unloaded on to a conveyor then spread out evenly to feed into the dehydrating plant, 70 feet long, where all moisture is removed. After passing through a series of meshes where it is ground down to fine meal proportions it is automatically weighed into 50lb bag lots ready for distribution.