NSW citrus growers expand orchard to 85,000 trees
Tim and Melissa Vandenberg have expanded their citrus farm 10-fold, establishing a 162ha operation producing premium export fruit for global markets.
Growth, innovation and a quality product are the drivers behind the success of citrus growers Tim and Melissa Vandenberg.
Having only purchased the first farm just over 10 years ago, the Timmel Ridge Estate citrus operation based at Gol Gol, north of Mildura in NSW, has expanded quickly, but steeped in precision management and calculated decisions.
Tim, who grew up in the horticultural industry studied a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from the University of Adelaide, before working in a corporate job within the industry. He then did a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and saw the opportunity to buy a citrus farm in 2014.
Initially buying a 16ha farm, Tim and Melissa, along with sons Charlie, 18, Harvy, 16, and Paddy, 12, have expanded rapidly, with the property now at 162ha and 85,000 citrus trees.
“I had an interest in citrus, it is a crop that allows us the ability to segregate markets by growing quality and it used the skills I had,” Tim said.
And while Tim is a fourth-generation farmer, he and Melissa started their farming venture on their own.
“In year one we got hailed out, so that was challenging, but over time we have built up the business, and when you are continuing to grow cash flow is always a challenge.”
But Tim believes wholeheartedly in the citrus industry and market options.
“Citrus is in a good position, we do have competition from overseas that can produce a lot of product, but we have an advantage in that we (Australian industry) can produce high quality grade fruit that eats and presents well.”
TREE QUALITY
The Vandenbergs grow multiple varieties from early to late season naval and Valencia oranges, mandarins, lemons and some limes.
While citrus markets were ever evolving, Tim said quality was the most important aspect to ensure markets could be met.
This has meant changing management practices, such as how pruning and fertiliser use is approached to reap the rewards.
“If you put the love back into the trees, they tend to return for you. Part of the reason I wanted to get into citrus is if you get it right and you are on the front foot and wanting to evolve, it can reward you.”
For Tim this means precise and forward-thinking management practices.
They hand-prune, every tree, every year.
“We try not to hedge the trees and we remove any dead wood to minimise scratching and marking of fruit.”
And while it may not be efficient, it gives back in healthier trees and better quality fruit.
Harvest starts in the first week of May and runs until the end of October, with hand picking all fruit.
“We utilize a number of contractors for picking and while labour has been a constraint in the past, we found staff easier to find this year. We also make it a priority to look after our staff, pay them well and we run a number of programs within the business to help staff and the community,” Tim said.
After harvest is complete tree are given a foliar spray with macro and micron nutrients to set them up for strong flowering and a good year ahead. Then from flowering they received eight to 10 more sprays of fertiliser depending on the season, fruit variety and size of fruit they were targeting.
Tim said new technology around the pH of soil and testing for nutrients has meant they can take this into consideration when applying a foliar spray.
From a budget perspective a base program of foliar fertiliser is set, then that is adjusted according to soil type – which varies significantly across the farm – and variety of fruit.
Nutrients in the soil and trees are tested multiple times a year, via soil, leaf and SAP tests.
“We take a soil hybrid approach and use particular products such as kelp, humic acids and worm juice to add in the nutrients we need.”
Citrus expert Brenton Frahm visits the farm once a month and does a visual inspection of all trees.
“You can tell a lot about a tree and how it is going from looking at them, they usually tell us what they need. We also use this visual tour to monitor for pest and disease pressure,” Tim said.
Although the main farm is quite isolated from disease pressure, but they do target sprays at specific times, for example around Christmas time to prevent scale which can worsen due to dust.
“We do try to minimise the number of herbicide or insecticides we use as best we can, from a cost, health, safety and sustainability perspective.”
WATER MONITOR
Water was one of the main concerns and costs to the business.
“We are a relatively young business and we understand we need to secure permanent water if we can, but that takes time,” Tim said.
They purchase most of their water on the temporary market, adding to the cost.
And to ensure they are getting the most out of the moisture they have and the water they buy, they utilise a lot of technology across the farm, including soil moisture monitoring and dendrometers – a precision instruments used to measure changes in the diameter of stems, trunks, branches, or fruit, which can provide valuable information on plant health and water needs.
Trees are watered by double line drip irrigation, which is more direct and helps save water. They budget on 8 megalitre/ha water use each season.
“We do it a bit differently to others, we irrigate a lot through the day, we find we get better fruit sizing, only by small increments, but all those small increments help,” Tim said.
Most farms have a three-shift system. This allows us to cover tree irrigation requirements over a 24 hour period on a daily basis and when it is 40C, they have ample back up to meet water requirements.
They also model the crop coefficient of transpiration – the transpiration ratio is the amount of water transpired by a plant relative to the amount of dry matter it produces – so they know per millimetre what water the trees need per day and they work back from that.
Soil moisture monitors are used across the farms and a dig stick is used weekly to depth to make sure the ground is not too wet or dry.
“If it is too wet fruit can go soft, so we also monitor the uptake of calcium to make sure fruit stays firm and travels well.”
The average annual rainfall is 250mm, however this year they have only received around 100mm to date.
Other technology used on-farm is weather monitoring, tree sensors with weed seeker technology, cameras and infra-red software, as well as satellite and aerial imagery to get visualisation from the top.
Artificial Intelligence through Aerobatics, which measures fruit size through season, colour and yield, is used on-farm, while AI was used in other business practices including operating and safety procedures.
MAXIMUM POTENTIAL
Fruit is supplied to Mildura Fruit Company, with the aim to get maximum class one pack-out of fruit.
“We try to get north of 60 per cent class one pack-out, but we have no shade covers and are more susceptible to weather and we can’t control it,” Tim said.
Tim said they had a collaborative working relationship with MFC who were transparent with what markets wanted and how they could target certain markets with varieties they grew.
Tim said 80-90 per cent of their fruit went into premium export markets.
They targeted a yield of 45 tonnes/ha and the orchard had been set up to supply citrus for 10 months of the year.
A lot of the trees on the Vandenbergs property are just coming into maturity now.
“The 45 tonnes/ha yield works for us. We set our budgets on that and while the approach varies depending on the season, the bigger the yield the smaller the fruit and we have sweet spot of about 80mm size for fruit.”
They employ three permanent staff, plus Tim, which has grown from Tim and one other.
Tim said to run citrus to its maximum potential he believed there should be one person working to every 40-48ha.
Looking to the future, Tim said they wanted to stay competitive on the world stage, as well as grow their business to a level that is competitive with corporate farms.
“To maximise business performance and get the best return on investment, the matrix to run a farm properly is 300-400 acres (121-161ha),” he said.
“I think as a private farm you have to get to that level to be competitive. In time we are looking to double what we have, to future proof us if one of the boys wants to come home.”
Although Tim said there was no pressure for the next generation to be involved in the business and they have all been encouraged to get higher education and a career away from the farm first.
“We employed a business coach to help set up a strategy to future proof us, so don’t need to rely on anyone else.”
Tim sits on Citrus Australia’s Advisory Committee which he finds valuable as it keeps growers and people in the industry at not only best practice, but next practice.
FreshCare was use for governance and AgWorld, a software program that captures data, is used for compliance.
“We keep records for compliance, so we can include the variety, patch, yield, sprays, weather and wind for spraying.”
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