For Andrey Perov, Pipfruit Operations Manager for Rosewood Orchards in Hawke’s Bay, if there’s a key difference he’s experienced being part of the FarmRight management team it’s that everyone in the business takes pride in thinking outside the box. “When I’m introducing new personnel to the business, I say there’s actually no box,” says Andrey. “We like to examine conventional thinking and growing methods to see how or where we can do things differently to better suit our orchards.”
Rosewood Orchards’ 82 ha of pipfruit is split across four blocks and is part of FarmRight’s growing portfolio of pipfruit investments with other well-established orchards in Nelson and Motueka. A substantial new orchard development in Ashburton is currently in progress. Once complete, they’ll have nearly 500 ha of pipfruit in production alongside other primary sector investments in dairy, dairy support, beef, grapes and hops.
As the only orchards located in the North Island, these Hawke’s Bay blocks – purchased from T&G over the past few years – are strategically important, spreading the risk of all four regions experiencing severe weather events at the same time and growing the best variety suited to the region, namely Envy. Andrey says there’s no room for mistakes when growing this premium variety. “We’ve got to deliver the best quality fruit to our packhouse partners, T&G, to get the best returns possible. That means no russet or chewing damage. Like every other grower, we’ve got crop management considerations as pest detection tolerance levels in most markets get tighter while maximum residue levels are being reduced.
“We can achieve very good black spot control but if we spray too often, we can upset the balance of beneficial insects that target codling moth, leafroller and ALCM. If we spray at too high a concentration, that can cause russet. It’s a balancing act.” An interesting feature of the Rosewood Orchards is that trees are grown in several different structures depending when the block was first developed. “Some are spindle/3D trees planted 20 to 25 years ago,” Andrey explains. “They’re still quite productive but not as productive as newer systems.
“A lot are growing in 2D format at different row spacings to determine which is more productive and easier operationally. “More recently, V trellis structures were used for newer plantings, and this growing method is the most productive so far with the highest canopy density of any of our NZ orchards.” Andrey prefers to see utilising the three growing structures as being something enjoyable to figure out, rather than a challenge. “It can help us look at problems from different angles and it helps with trial work, for example, looking at the differences in spray coverage of a product between the older trees with more leaf area and canopy volume and the easy-to-penetrate 2D trees, with the V trellis system in between. Sometimes we bring learnings from one growing system to another, or develop new operational systems that are applicable for all three growing methods.”
The investment in several three-row, overhead sprayers ticks several boxes for the way FarmRight likes to do business. The computer controllers improve application efficiencies and save spray waste, the 3000 L tanks mean less refilling, and covering three rows at once means they’re five times more fuel efficient than a two-row sprayer. The Rosewoods Orchards team is also finetuning their processes for crop monitoring and utilising the latest technology to assess crop load, fruit size, tree health and architecture.
Having trustworthy technical advice from Hastings-based Luke Bottrell, Fruitfed Supplies Technical Horticulture Representative, is another asset. Andrey says Luke brings valuable information and speaks his mind. “I appreciate his honesty as I sometimes have unorthodox views on things. I like a technical advisor to be like that. I also appreciate the fact that if he doesn’t know something, he’ll go and find out. No one knows everything and this makes me trust him more.”
Andrey also appreciates being able to talk with other Fruitfed Supplies staff including Marcus Fitzsimmons, Extension Advisor – Pipfruit and is keen to see whether there are opportunities to work together on trial work at the new PGG Wrightson research facility in Hawke’s Bay. There’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm at FarmRight for doing things more efficiently and sustainability, plus idea sharing across the portfolios with focus days and an annual conference. “We don’t sit around pondering new ideas. It might only be a short time between having an idea and implementing a trial to test it. If it works, we’ll implement into our growing procedures which we update continuously. In Hawke’s Bay, we currently have six trials running. I’m excited to work for this company with this constant innovation.”
