The Hawke’s Bay fruit growing industry has seen a steady stream of challenges over the last few years, mostly outside of the control of orchardists. Growers have needed to continuously make personal management decisions that can either manage or mitigate any negative downstream effects to their business operations.
After being in the Hawke’s Bay fruit industry for over 35 years I have come to realise that things will never remain the same. Successful growers are those that change at the right speed for the business, keep the mistakes to a minimum and work very hard to ensure they have the best luck possible.
Many of the decisions that brought success to the top growers in the 1990’s, were superseded with “more important challenges” in the 2000’s and again in the 2010’s. I believe we are again at another pivot point in time for the industry.
It is easier to be successful if you fully understand your business, and where your best efforts need to be now and into the future. Working hard in the wrong area of your business does not help the final outcome.
A successful grower should be able to answer the following:
What limiting factors within my business are having the greatest impact on my current financial sustainability?
1. Do I know what success looks like for these limitations?
2. Do I know how I rate compared to other growers?
3. Once the limitation I need to improve is identified, who will I use to help me find and deliver the solutions?
4. What new challenges are coming in the future?
5. How is my business set up for managing my way through to get the best possible outcomes?
It is also important to plan what your own future business success looks like.
1. Are you driving your business to maximise ongoing profitability? Or planning towards a successful exit strategy?
2. When are you looking to step out?
3. Who is likely to take over?
4. What will growers be looking for when you want to move on?
5. Are you creating an orchard business that will be seen as having on going value or will it be seen as being a remove and replant situation?
6. How do you ensure your short and medium term business success is maximized along the way?
Many growers are keen to get the pruning under way at this time of the year, but it is also critical to clearly understand the business direction you are looking to take. Make sure your on-orchard management decisions are taking you on the right path.
Jonathan Brookes AgFirst HB Ltd
NZ Apples & Pears is facilitating an all-of-horticulture grower meeting, which will include an update from government officials on the North Island Weather Events Loan Guarantee Scheme and the Primary Producer Finance Scheme.
FRIDAY 28 JULY, 2023
• 10.45am – 1pm, followed by light lunch (NOTE this differs from the time originally advertised)
• Magdalinos Room, Havelock North Function Centre, 30 Te Mata Road, Havelock North
For the Full Agenda CLICK HERE
To Register CLICK HERE
We have been advised that the submission date for the Sediment and Debris Fund has been further extended to 31 August 2023
For more information about the fund and how to apply, please see HERE
Growers can now log a job via the HBRC website to have their reflective polypropylene matting, bird netting collected and the green wind/shade cloth. These materials will then be taken to a holding site until we are confident with our due diligence around its recycling potential.
Below is the HBRC link to log a job for the collection of material. HBRC and HDC have a Silt & Debris taskforce that is managing the collection and holding sites for these multiple waste streams.
It is preferred that the materials are separated into their individual waste streams.
https://www.hbrc.govt.nz/our-council/cyclone-gabrielle-response/dealing-with-waste/
Submission Date – now extended to 31 August 2023.
Please find the below links to a recording from the webinar, supporting presentation slides, info sheet and FAQs.
Webinar Presentation Sediment and Debris – Commercial Funding – HB Grower QA 8-6-23
Infosheet Sediment and Debris Recovery Fund for Commercial Entities
FAQs Sediment and Silt Recovery Funding for Commercial Entities
Questions and documentation and evidence required
The Government has passed an Order in Council – Severe Weather Emergency Recovery (Resource Management—Burning of Waste) Order 2023. This is a result of advocacy by the Horticulture Action Group (HAG), NZ Apples & Pears, and HortNZ.
The order came into force on 5 July 2023. It allows the burning of waste in the open air only if the owner or the occupier or their authorised person:
The permitted activity standards stipulate:
The detail is provided in the Order of Council, which you can view here.
29 June 2023
The Government has announced a support package for growers, farmers and businesses affected by the North Island Weather events.
For the full announcement please visit HERE
First the preview of something that has been playing on my mind as it always does at this time of the year; how much winter chilling are we stacking up. June, July, and August are normally reliably cold thus the bonus chilling is what we get in May. It’s been terrible! Many of the HB weather stations had been recording negative chill, which sounds a bit arse about face, but it’s not ideal. Witness the level of leaf retention on cherry and apple trees. Not cold enough.
Georgina Griffiths from Met Service was on the radio (RNZ) a few days ago talking about the incoming El Nino event, and her comments were backed up by Brent Clothier (PFR, Palmerston North) at conference. We are in for a cold winter. Bingo, tick that off, something is going our way. Now we can focus the dormancy enhancer (breaker) products on tightening up bloom or playing with the timing of bloom. The winter chill calculators are now moving towards more normal accumulation with the Longlands site already there.
The downside of the incoming El Nino is that spring will still be cold with southerlies, but let’s deal with that bit when it arrives.
The upside is a predicted return to a westerly pattern for summer, hot and dry. Yippie, happy growers and wholesalers and retailers and consumers. As Meatloaf sang – two out of three aint bad. And to quote Bruce McKay, our best years are drought years.
In the review space, the Summerfruit conference was a couple of weeks ago based in Queenstown and Cromwell. Grower participation from HB was light but there was good representation from other sectors of the industry. The kick-the-dirt sessions were hosted by Michael Jones and Mike Casey with on-orchard presentations by Matt Whiting and Clive Kaiser respectively. While the blocks, in this case vertical and horizontal planar canopies, and observations were cherry focused, the lessons learned are appropriate across most fruit groups. For those interested I have a few paper copies of Clive Kaisers orchard presentation which is a very good 101 level, maybe 200 level paper, on the fundamentals of growing and pruning deciduous trees. Again, cherry focused but well worth a read for all stone fruit or pipfruit crops. His suggestions on beehives are; grouping them together, raising them off the ground and facing the hive entrance towards the rising sun. The use of glucose feeding and placement outside of netted orchards were also interesting. Considering the potentially cold spring these ideas are well worth a thought.
Matt Whiting from Washington State University had two presentations in the conference proper, one on cold hardiness and a potential new frost fighting tool and the other an update on sweet cherry research in his neck of the woods. The presentations were captured on video and with a bit of luck will be available on the portal in due course.
We also had Jerf van Beek give a Cyclone Gabrielle effects and recovery presentation. For those that have lived though this it was nothing new, but emotional to see again. For the majority in the room the focus on deciduous trees was new and brought a degree of reality compared to a 3-minute news item. Jerf’s passion and tears were there for all to see, and I applaud him for the ability to show vulnerability. I would also like to publicly thank him and Xan Harding as regional councillors for the work the continue to on our behalf.
Richard Mills
Summerfruit Technical Advisor
021 632559
We have been advised that the submission date for the Sediment and Debris Fund has been extended from 30 June 2023 to 31 July 2023.
For more information about the fund and how to apply, please see HERE
Submission Date – now extended from 30 June to 31 July 2023
Please find the below links to recordings of Q&A webinars, supporting presentation slides, info sheet and FAQs.
Webinar Presentation Sediment and Debris – Commercial Funding – HB Grower QA 8-6-23
Infosheet Sediment and Debris Recovery Fund for Commercial Entities
FAQs Sediment and Silt Recovery Funding for Commercial Entities
Questions and documentation and evidence required
