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Horticulture Help Just a Stone’s Throw Away

 

With Farmlands recently opening its first ever Horticulture Hub in Hawke’s Bay, we speak to one shareholder who won’t have to go far to use the brand-new facility.

 

The new hub, in Twyford just 5km from the centre of Hastings, operates as a distribution centre while also offering specialist horticulture products and advice. It is designed to better support growers in the Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand’s largest apple, pear and squash-growing region, and second largest for wine. It’s in the perfect position for local growers Bayley Produce, who grow a mixture of summerfruit, apples and crops. “We’re directly over the road, so it’s only a stone’s throw,” says Max Bayley, Agriculture Manager. 

 

The business was founded by Max’s parents Kevin (who is still Managing Director) and Karen Bayley, who bought their first summerfruit orchard in Hawke’s Bay in 1990. It has expanded significantly since then, not only in size but in the range of produce they grow. They also have an on-site packhouse and processing facilities on their main property. “We grow a range of crops over 200 hectares, consisting of sweetcorn, beans, peas, watermelon and some squash,” says Max, who is responsible for the cropping side of Bayley Produce. “That’s where half our focus lies, the other half is summerfruit and apples.” Despite their diversified mix of produce, most of the crops are picked at around the same time in early-mid summer. 

 

Bayley Produce has about 40 full-time workers throughout the year, but this swells to close to 300 at harvest time, consisting of locals, backpackers and RSE workers from the Solomon Islands. “There is a good eight weeks through summer that we are harvesting crops and summerfruit. So, it is chaotic throughout Christmas and the New Year,” Max says. “Especially when all our produce is hand harvested.” Having such a diverse mix of produce enables land to be rotated between different uses, Max says. “If there is a block growing apples for a long time for example, then it can make good cropping land”

 

 

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Timing Important

Although their apples are mainly exported, with Asia being the biggest market, most of their crops and summerfruit are sold to the local New Zealand market. As a result, getting the timing right is crucial, Max says. “There's a lot of consumer demand for fresh vegetables and fruit leading into Christmas, so it's important for us to be able to supply the market at those times. We try our best to supply quality produce, as quality sells itself. It’s very expensive hand harvesting everything, but worthwhile to make sure the right produce makes the shelves.”

 

The timing of their harvest season helped to lessen the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle, which struck in February last year. Although many of their apples were affected, Max says their summerfruit and most of their other crops had been harvested before the extreme weather hit. “Fortunately, when the cyclone came through, we had most of our season out of the way. We had a watermelon crop which got completely wiped out. We'd only just started harvesting a small amount the day before; all the rest floated down the river ending up in fence lines and drains.” About half of the Bayleys main orchard was underwater, but their packhouse was spared major damage. “It's one of those things where initially you don't get the full scale, until it’s a year later and you're constantly turning a corner and thinking, ‘where has that disappeared?’ or ‘has that engine been drained of water?’”

 

Valuable Support

Although not every Hawke’s Bay grower is lucky enough to be right next door to the Farmlands Horticulture Hub, Max says they appreciate that Farmlands is investing in the sector in their region. “It's been a stressful time, so it's nice to have the support.” Bayley Produce gets most of their agchem products and fertilisers from Farmlands, and works closely with the Farmlands technical team on their growth program and keeping up to date with the latest developments and changes they need to know about. “As growers it’s a big job trying to keep up with new regulations”, Max says, “With water and labour rules constantly changing, it’s great to have Farmlands’ support when it comes to doing what we enjoy - growing”

 

 

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Eye for Detail Needed

Farmlands Technical Advisor Mike Caplan, who works with Bayley Produce on their summerfruit and apples, says they do stone fruit “exceptionally well” and are probably the biggest grower in Hawke’s Bay. “Growing summerfruit requires an eye for detail. If you get apples wrong, they're a little bit more forgiving. If you get summerfruit wrong, they’re unforgiving. You can't go, ‘well that's an average bit of soil, I'll go and put some summerfruit on it’. You can do that with apples.” Climate-wise, one of the key ingredients for successful summerfruit growing is a cold winter, Mike says. “Touch wood, we’re having an exceptionally good year as we've had very good winter chilling. It looks like it could be a blinder.”

 

Another requirement for growing summerfruit is making sure they don’t get too wet, Mike says. “Summerfruit don't like wet feet; if you get wet feet, they will roll their toes up and die, which is why we lost a lot of summerfruit during the cyclone. It’s not mandatory to have drainage, but it’s a really good idea.” One of the biggest challenges for summerfruit growers is brown rot. Mike says it is important to get on top of the issue early, typically starting from the flowering stage. “When you start getting to harvest, when the sugars start coming up in the fruit, that's when it starts attacking again.” He warns that failing to take the proper precautions at the start can spell doom later in the season. “If you don’t get it right now, you might not know about it. Brown rot may not show up until later on… which can be a million dollar ‘oops’.”

 

Exceeding Expectations

Mike has more than 30 years’ industry experience and has previously run his own orchard. He says his favourite part of being a Farmlands Technical Advisor is being out on the road meeting his customers. This means he doesn’t spend a huge amount of time at the brand-new Farmlands Horticulture Hub in which he is based. However, he says that what he has seen of the new facility so far has exceeded his expectations. Regardless of how close they are to the Horticulture Hub, Mike says there are certain things his clients have in common that they look for from Farmlands. “Number one is product. The product has to be there today, not tomorrow or the next day.” The other important thing for Farmlands horticulture customers is relationships, he says. “If you don't get on with them, it's never going to work. For me it’s all about relationships and adding value to their business.”

 

 

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