Jason Shields wins The Weekly Times Coles 2019 Horticulture Farmer of the Year
Jason Shields of Plunkett Orchards has taken out the top horticulture honour at the Farmer of the Year Awards. Discover why and meet the finalists here.
AUSTRALIA’S top beef, cropping, dairy, horticulture, innovative and sheep farmers have been recognised at The Weekly Times Coles 2019 Farmer of the Year Awards.
The following three growers vied for the title of Horticulture Farmer of the Year.
WINNER: JASON SHIELDS
PLUNKETT ORCHARDS, ARDMONA, VIC
CORE BUSINESS PLAN PAYS OFF
MAXIMISING efficiencies has helped position Jason Shields on the upper branches of Australia’s apple and pear industry tree.
But for the reigning AUSVEG Horticulture Grower of the Year – who manages Plunkett Orchards, growing fruit for major supermarkets and wholesale outlets as well as key export markets, from Ardmona in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley – this rise to the top has certainly not happened overnight.
It has been the result of much blood, sweat and tears in the two decades since the now 43-year-old started in the industry as a self-confessed “19-year-old unemployed bum”.
Jason has managed Plunkett Orchards for the past 20 years and helped achieve the impressive current growth rate of about 10 per cent a year, now producing 9000 tonnes of fruit from 300,000 trees spread across 150 hectares.
Technology plays a critical role at Plunkett. In recent years, Jason has presided over the introduction of state-of-the-art elevated working platforms that have revolutionised orchard jobs such as thinning, pruning and harvest.
The platforms cost about $150,000 each and mean no physical strength is needed to perform tasks, making work more appealing to people of all capabilities.
“We need to have a 7 per cent efficiency gain to pay the machine back within three years,” Jason says. “Just in harvest alone we think we’ve got a 15-20 per cent quality gain and that will pay back the machine in less than a year. It is not a case of saving labour — it is a case of not wasting labour.”
His focus now is investing in “game-changing” processing and packing facilities, to be running by this season.
Jason says the reality of the business is that “a lot of our world is now run from software”, such as the computerised soil-moisture probes dotted across the farms that automatically deliver water and nutrients.
“I remember 20 years ago, I used to drive around all day turning (water) valves on and off but now we can see on a computer what is happening and can perform these tasks automatically,” he says. “It means we have so much more time to invest in the business.”
It’s this type of logic – of farming smarter, not harder – that makes Jason Shields a worthy recipient of The Weekly Times Coles 2019 Horticulture Farmer of the Year.
FINALIST: CRITTENDEN ESTATE
CRITTENDEN FAMILY, DROMANA, VIC
SUSTAINABILITY ADDS TO THE PERFECT DROP
PRODUCING quality wine without the environmental hangover is winning world acclaim for the Crittenden family from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
Crittenden Estate is run by Garry Crittenden – one of the first people to grow winegrapes on the Mornington Peninsula – his winemaker son, Rollo, and daughter, Zoe, from their 11-hectare farm at Dromana. From 4.5 hectares of vines – predominantly pinot noir and chardonnay with smaller plantings of savagnin, from France’s Jura region – they produce 1500-2000 cases of premium wine a year.
But it’s their natural approach to wine production that stands the Crittendens out from the crowd. Fifteen years ago, they overhauled their farming practices after discovering their wines “weren’t achieving balance” in terms of flavours, sugar and acid levels.
“As was the wisdom at the time”, Rollo says, glyphosate was the go-to to address weed problems in the vineyard and artificial supplements were used to rebalance the soil’s nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium levels.
“It became very apparent … by not replenishing the soils, and through the use of chemicals, we were really killing the microbial growth in the soil,” he says. “And you could see the nutrient deficiencies in the vines were really starting to take effect.”
To counter this, the Crittendens ceased chemical use, trialled spreading compost over rows of the vineyard and growing cover crops between vines. Almost immediately, they saw “a decided difference, in particular in the soil”.
“There was better colour in the bunches (of fruit),” Garry says. “It was amazing, things like more disease resistance. The whole of the Peninsula would have a bad vintage with powdery mildew or downy mildew but our vines wouldn’t have a problem.”
Rollo says the results have also shown up in the winemaking process, with quality skyrocketing. Last month Crittenden Estate was recognised with a sustainability award from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.
A feat certainly worth raising your glass to.
FINALIST: RUGBY FARM
MATT AND DAN HOOD, GATTON, QLD
RUGBY TACKLES VALUE-ADDING
YOU certainly can’t argue with the numbers at Rugby Farm.
Operated by brothers Matt and Dan Hood near Gatton in the fertile Lockyer Valley of southeast Queensland, the third-generation farming business plants the equivalent of three average-sized vegetable farms a week, produces 20 million packs of value-added product annually and employs more than 900 staff.
More than a century since their forebears first farmed the region, the Hoods have transformed a traditional “mum and dad” business into a professional corporate outfit growing 6070 hectares of produce year round in four geographical regions of Queensland and NSW.
“If you put that into perspective the average vegie farm is 100-odd acres (40.5 hectares), we are planting three of them every week,” says Matt, a former AUSVEG Grower of the Year. “It is a mammoth task, the logistics and the intensity of horticulture — no one knows unless you’re in the game — every single day.”
Produce is split into seasonal lines, with winter staples of broccoli, cauliflower, iceberg lettuce and cabbage, and summer crops of sweet corn, green beans and pumpkins.
Always keen to stay ahead of the competition, the Hoods have led on innovation for generations, first pioneering irrigated farming in the Lockyer Valley and in more recent decades embracing technology. They employ cover crops and compost to assist in soil health, and use the latest weed and pest-management techniques, including drones and automated weed removers.
Chemical use is significantly reduced through the use of beneficial bugs and biological products.
But it’s Rugby Farm’s work on monitoring consumer trends and value-adding that has won them a whole new legion of consumers in more recent years.
Six years ago, they teamed up with Coles to launch pre-cut vegetables in a ready-to-cook format, ready to be microwaved, steamed or boiled. In more recent years they have developed sweet potato and zucchini noodles, cauliflower and kale rice, and root vegetable chips.
Not only did this business model help boost vegetable consumption, it has also addressed wastage of produce that did not meet strict consumer specifications.
Providing plenty of food for thought.
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