The Guest family, North Dorrigo, works well with Coles because they provide a consistent product. Key to that consistency is planning ahead - six months - and work starts with the soil.
Green manure crops are critical inputs in rotation with brassicas – including 25,000 broccoli, 4000 cauliflower, 2000 cabbage and the same in silverbeet and kale – followed by potatoes and pumpkins all of which contribute in a major way to the quality of the next harvest.
The Guests divide their 120ha of farms into 12ha paddocks which are in constant rotation.
A staff of 14 full time employees and up to 22 from Christmas to March when the market rewards fresh potatoes, provides a living for local labour which is preferred because backpackers tend to leave the farm in the lurch if surf’s up on the coast.
Spuds follow brassicas which naturally fumigate the soil with a two year fallow to follow. Oats plays a role during this time with the crop ploughed in on maturity. Triticale for the cooler months is planted after May for the same purpose with forage Sorghum in summer. A broad leaf herbicide is applied over these green manure crops to reduce weed pressure, which on the Dorrigo is vigorous beyond a joke.
Brassicas, like broccoli, also contribute to the soil carbon bank with most of the plant left behind after the flowering stalk is removed. All green manure is ploughed back in with a 32 plate disc mulcher.
“I calculate that we plough in 1000 tonnes worth of green matter every year across our farms and the year we harvested oats for silage we noticed a difference next season,” said Stephen Guest, fourth generation Dorrigo Plateau farmer who with the help of his brother, Tony, and parents, Heidi and Digger, manage several farms spanning 60km from Tyringham in the west to Bellingen in the east.
Grazing Livestock could work well with so much green manure but the risk of a mob of weaners busting out of a fallow paddock to chew a crop of kale isn’t worth the worry. And the Guests are busy enough, with Heidi and Digger working seven days a week when others their age play lawn bowls.
Bellingen, which is 716m lower than Dorrigo, has a favourable temperature 10-12 degrees warmer come winter and provides product when the plateau goes to sleep. The situation becomes turn-about in summer. The ability to offer consistency all year ’round is critical to the Guest’s ability to satisfy Coles. But without good rotation and soil care the job goes backwards.
Consistency the key to happy relationships
The Guest family has a long history in the potato game but ventured into vegetables after they purchased the Doust family’s market interests 20 years ago. The risk has been worth the effort.
“It’s a buzz to see our spuds or broccoli in the supermarket,” says Mr Guest. “It feels good to grow good food. Potatoes by comparison are pretty forgiving whereas vegetables require precise attention. If you don’t get a spray right or apply the correct nutrition you might not even get a crop.”
With their own small fleet of refrigerated trucks they deliver fresh produce every day to stores from Tweed to Taree and west to Tamworth. The on-farm fleet makes a difference, with washed and chilled vegetables – broccoli goes out on ice – loaded into refrigerated trucks with produce bypassing the Brisbane markets. The result is a crisper leaf, which in the case of Kale seems to have made an impression at a Tweed outlet located right next door to a fitness centre.
Pest pressure in winter is not too bad, but summer westerlies bring a near plague of moths whose offspring of loopers love brassicas. The Guest family sprays accordingly but work in with neighbours who are sensitive to chemicals – particularly a queen bee breeder nearby. And the family relies on European honey bees to pollinate their pumpkins, so use pesticide strategically.
Herbicide application is at sowing time with weeds allowed their freedom as the crop matures. Custom applications of liquid fertiliser are critical but Mr Guest applies boron as required, especially to silverbeet which is sensitive to the trace element. Lime is spread at the rate of 200kg/ha every other year on naturally acidic red soils.