Phil and Joanne Curd
Phil and Joanne Curd, Apple growers at Twyford, south of Hastings have a 6ha home orchard plus 4ha leased orchard and 2.5ha new ground for planting of Jazz variety from winter 2005 onwards.
The family home orchard (father Frank and brother Andrew) was completely replanted in early 1990s when Granny Smith, Red and Golden Delicious replaced with Royal Gala (53% of area), Braeburn (34%) and Fuji (4%) and rest Pacific series. Many trees will need replacing again this decade with the new variety, Jazz, as allocation received. Jazz (licensed by Enza) is a cross between Braeburn and Royal Gala. It has very good colour and taste and preferred size count to meet the export markets.
Phil and Joanne have two children, Matthew 13 and Sophie 7. Joanne is a nurse and works off the orchard. Phil purchased part of the family orchard four years ago after 10 years overseas. The original property had 70ha of cash cropping, 25ha of grapes and 12ha of apples. Phil has half of the original orchard area. He also has a long-term lease on 4ha orchard nearby, spreading the adverse climatic conditions risk, frost and hail. Phil is now looking for more orchards in production to lease, but costs are rising and competition is keen from big players in the industry looking to vertically integrate.
The apple returns were down in 2004 at least $4/ctn, in range of $13-18/ctn. Growers need a base return of $18-20/ctn for sustainability. Most of the growers have got over the shock of the bad return, have refinanced, and will now refocus on growing top quality apples.
Running costs breakdown:
$2/ctn for picking,
$3-3.50 for packing,
$3-3.50 for packaging,
up to $1.70 for shipping and cool store,
at least $5/ctn for growing costs.
HB is the premium apple growing area in the world, with the right climate, no extremes, and plenty of water.
An automated irrigation system is able to apply water on demand when a soil moisture deficit is indicated by neutron probes. The system delivers up to 70 cubic metres/hour.
The irrigation system is programmed to apply water at night, (to minimise evapotranspiration), come on when temperature reaches 28 deg, (to reduce the risk of sunburn on fruit), come on at 2 deg, (to combat frost) and deliver fertigation (fertilisers through water supply).
Integrated Fruit Production (IFP) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the worlds leading environmental production and agrichemical use system, with on-orchard management using auditable, justifiable use of a limited range of 'soft' chemicals. Phil has pheromone traps for specific pests, monitored weekly.
Other modern management practices include bud break spraying to condense flowering, chemical thinning of immature apples, reflective mulch for increased carbohydrates and fruit colour, and branch girdling to slow ethylene production and spread out harvest.
Harvest begins at the end of January and each tree is picked three to five times for targeted uniform sizes. Brix levels, fruit pressure and colour are constantly monitored. Pickers are usually backpackers, with 10 to 12 weeks to get the crop off. Picking is done from ladders into buckets and field bins. Fruit is graded and packed by Mr Apple New Zealand Ltd. Contractors prune the trees in winter. Phils hands-on management season begins in September with orchard cleaning, spraying, tree training and hand thinning of fruit.
About three or four years ago Phil moved away from employing local labour for the following reasons: fresh staff, fit young backpackers, motivated, mix of nationalities, enjoyable to be around, stay on orchard or nearby. He now provides accommodation for up to 15-20 people, needed at peak of season. He advertises in backpacker lodges in the upper NI and through the HB Pipfruit Growers website. New pickers would start on wages for two days, to get them confident, experienced, without worrying too much about quality of conditions. They then go on to contract rates, and within a week or so they are well past the hourly rate. Contract rates have gone up 12-15% over the past two years.
Phil is making a substantial financial commitment to a new exciting variety called Jazz, for which the new orchard areas are tightly controlled and the growers here and overseas will be part of a club, so that fruit of the highest quality is marketed throughout the year. He applied for an allocation of trees and was awarded 3000, which will plant out 2ha of newly-leased land only 1.5kms away from home orchard.
Planting will be in the winter, at about 4m x 2m spacings, with 3m posts and up to four wires, plus a new sprinkler system. The Jazz trees will be available from his nursery, on 793 rootstock, with M9 dwarfing interstems.
In the first season all fruit set will be stripped, in the second season he might get 30-50 apples per tree to pull the branches down, in the third he would get 75% of full production and in the four season onwards he will be hoping for 3000-3500 catrtons/ha. He may inter-row crop with beans, squash or corn in years one and two, just to provide some cashflow. Costs include $10/tree and up to $35,000/ha before the first full harvest.
Phil says he has a very good relationship with Mr Apple (the second largest packhouse and exporter in the country). Since deregulation the power has shifted to packhouses and exporters, and away from growers, who cant throw their weight around anymore. That would be a good thing, because the post-harvest operators are driven by market forces and make decisions that growers are not skilled to make. Growers who have good relationships with their post-harvest operator basically stick to their part of the business, delivering the best quality fruit. They then have some moral authority saying I have done my part in fruitgrowing, now I trust you to do the best you can with it."
The family home orchard (father Frank and brother Andrew) was completely replanted in early 1990s when Granny Smith, Red and Golden Delicious replaced with Royal Gala (53% of area), Braeburn (34%) and Fuji (4%) and rest Pacific series. Many trees will need replacing again this decade with the new variety, Jazz, as allocation received. Jazz (licensed by Enza) is a cross between Braeburn and Royal Gala. It has very good colour and taste and preferred size count to meet the export markets.
Phil and Joanne have two children, Matthew 13 and Sophie 7. Joanne is a nurse and works off the orchard. Phil purchased part of the family orchard four years ago after 10 years overseas. The original property had 70ha of cash cropping, 25ha of grapes and 12ha of apples. Phil has half of the original orchard area. He also has a long-term lease on 4ha orchard nearby, spreading the adverse climatic conditions risk, frost and hail. Phil is now looking for more orchards in production to lease, but costs are rising and competition is keen from big players in the industry looking to vertically integrate.
The apple returns were down in 2004 at least $4/ctn, in range of $13-18/ctn. Growers need a base return of $18-20/ctn for sustainability. Most of the growers have got over the shock of the bad return, have refinanced, and will now refocus on growing top quality apples.
Running costs breakdown:
$2/ctn for picking,
$3-3.50 for packing,
$3-3.50 for packaging,
up to $1.70 for shipping and cool store,
at least $5/ctn for growing costs.
HB is the premium apple growing area in the world, with the right climate, no extremes, and plenty of water.
An automated irrigation system is able to apply water on demand when a soil moisture deficit is indicated by neutron probes. The system delivers up to 70 cubic metres/hour.
The irrigation system is programmed to apply water at night, (to minimise evapotranspiration), come on when temperature reaches 28 deg, (to reduce the risk of sunburn on fruit), come on at 2 deg, (to combat frost) and deliver fertigation (fertilisers through water supply).
Integrated Fruit Production (IFP) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the worlds leading environmental production and agrichemical use system, with on-orchard management using auditable, justifiable use of a limited range of 'soft' chemicals. Phil has pheromone traps for specific pests, monitored weekly.
Other modern management practices include bud break spraying to condense flowering, chemical thinning of immature apples, reflective mulch for increased carbohydrates and fruit colour, and branch girdling to slow ethylene production and spread out harvest.
Harvest begins at the end of January and each tree is picked three to five times for targeted uniform sizes. Brix levels, fruit pressure and colour are constantly monitored. Pickers are usually backpackers, with 10 to 12 weeks to get the crop off. Picking is done from ladders into buckets and field bins. Fruit is graded and packed by Mr Apple New Zealand Ltd. Contractors prune the trees in winter. Phils hands-on management season begins in September with orchard cleaning, spraying, tree training and hand thinning of fruit.
About three or four years ago Phil moved away from employing local labour for the following reasons: fresh staff, fit young backpackers, motivated, mix of nationalities, enjoyable to be around, stay on orchard or nearby. He now provides accommodation for up to 15-20 people, needed at peak of season. He advertises in backpacker lodges in the upper NI and through the HB Pipfruit Growers website. New pickers would start on wages for two days, to get them confident, experienced, without worrying too much about quality of conditions. They then go on to contract rates, and within a week or so they are well past the hourly rate. Contract rates have gone up 12-15% over the past two years.
Phil is making a substantial financial commitment to a new exciting variety called Jazz, for which the new orchard areas are tightly controlled and the growers here and overseas will be part of a club, so that fruit of the highest quality is marketed throughout the year. He applied for an allocation of trees and was awarded 3000, which will plant out 2ha of newly-leased land only 1.5kms away from home orchard.
Planting will be in the winter, at about 4m x 2m spacings, with 3m posts and up to four wires, plus a new sprinkler system. The Jazz trees will be available from his nursery, on 793 rootstock, with M9 dwarfing interstems.
In the first season all fruit set will be stripped, in the second season he might get 30-50 apples per tree to pull the branches down, in the third he would get 75% of full production and in the four season onwards he will be hoping for 3000-3500 catrtons/ha. He may inter-row crop with beans, squash or corn in years one and two, just to provide some cashflow. Costs include $10/tree and up to $35,000/ha before the first full harvest.
Phil says he has a very good relationship with Mr Apple (the second largest packhouse and exporter in the country). Since deregulation the power has shifted to packhouses and exporters, and away from growers, who cant throw their weight around anymore. That would be a good thing, because the post-harvest operators are driven by market forces and make decisions that growers are not skilled to make. Growers who have good relationships with their post-harvest operator basically stick to their part of the business, delivering the best quality fruit. They then have some moral authority saying I have done my part in fruitgrowing, now I trust you to do the best you can with it."