Persistence is paying dividends at Ryefield Hops

Throw in the sustained Bega Valley bushfires last year and you have a recipe for disaster.

That was what faced Ryefield Hops' Morgan and Karen Taylor, and Jade McManus.

Already buying in water and hand-watering to keep their plants alive, when the fires hit it decimated the Bembooka, NSW, enterprise's plants.

"Prior to the bushfires we had a sustained severe drought and the soil moisture was zero," Jade said.

"We were battling to keep our plants alive.

"The plants were already very stressed and then the huge fires all around us lead to the burrs (start of the flowers) being singed and scorched.

"The plants were sent into a further stressed state from the hot winds and ongoing heavy smoke.

"The smoke sent the plants into a state of dormancy because the lack of solar penetration and therefore restricting their potential for photosynthesis.

"On top of this as we could not keep up the hand watering of the new plantings and we lost about two-thirds of our newly planted four hectare (10 acre) area."

The damage was not restricted to just the new plantings with the heat and stress also denying a harvest last year.

Ryefield Hops began as a conversation in 2016 between Morgan and Jade.

Jade was hobby brewing in Sydney and Morgan and Karen were moving back to the Bega Valley and wanted to do something on his family's land - a former dairy for Bega Cheese.

"We all grew up in the area, but moved away to follow different career paths in trade and university," Jade said.

"The idea of hops came about through researching the ingredients in beer and realising that the unique micro-climate of Bemboka sat perfectly with the climatic conditions that hops require.

"Coming from an amateur brewing background it was a crop that interested us, in there was also no small scale growers in NSW at the time.

"Morgan did not want to start a dairy back up on the farm and wanted to diversify so that it was not just cattle.

"Hops have enabled us to bring a regionality to brewers as well as access to small scale sustainably produced hops that was not there prior.

"In addition to the climatic conditions, the farm also had existing access to water and flat ground to grow on.

"Our first season was a trial to both see if hops grew in the area and what the market uptake was.

"We had our first harvest in 2017 and we have grown each year since to the current trellis acreage of 12 acres and a mechanical hops processing shed.

"We have been expanding the hops field each year.

"We only grow as big as our harvesting capability.

"Prior to mechanical harvesting, we hand picked with amazing help from community volunteers.

"Hand picking is very slow and therefore we could not expand beyond our two acres until we had constructed the processing shed.

"Our goal is to grow to approximately eight hectares (20ac), with the additional 3.2ha (eight acres) being planned in a few seasons' time."

That work began this season with the propagation of approximately 6000 plants ready to go into the ground for next season.

"When we lost a lot of the new plantings last year, we effectively lost three seasons," Jade said.

"Hops are a rhizome and require approximately three to four years to reach maturity and full yield.

"We only had approximately a quarter of the 12 acres planted out this season and are aiming to have a full field for Season 2022.

"As the majority of plants will still be first year, the yield will be minimal.

"But when the whole 12 acres is at full yielding capacity, we are targeting approximately 10 - 15 tonne dry weight of hops.

"We grow seven varieties including Saaz, Cascade, Centennial, Victoria, Chinook, Columbus and Fuggle, each providing different aromas and allow for different brewing styles."

Bega Valley operation Ryefield Hops is much more than just about producing quality hops for craft brewers.

When the Taylors, Morgan and Karen, and Jade McManus were first conceiving their hop growing enterprise, they wanted it to be sustainable and as environmentally friendly as possible.

"Regenerative agricultural principles and organic farming practices are at the core of our philosophy," Jade said.

"We want to both commercially farm at the same time as giving back to the environment, working with nature instead of against it.

"We focus on soil health and building up microbes levels and soil carbon.

"Ryefield Hops use a wide variety of different crops in our summer and winter cover crops which we both plant in the field.

"There is a crimper onsite and we use this to increase the organic matter in the soil.

"We use bio-char from a local supplier and combine this with a locally made fish waste compost while we also use worm juice from our onsite worm farm, as well as comfrey tea.

"There are not any chemical sprays in use on the plants.

"We promote beneficial insects and use integrated pest management to control insect pests."

During the severe drought and devastating bushfires, Ryefield Hops was forced to buy in water in the attempt to keep its plants alive.

They have now taken measures to rectify this.

"We are focused on building back the natural biodiversity surrounding the hops yard by fencing the cattle out from the creek and commencing riparian restoration works," Jade said.

"We also installed a large 20 megalitre dam which is also fenced from the cattle and will be vegetated with native plants to create a natural wetland area.

"Prior to last season we accessed all our water from a creek that has an extraction licence which is attached to the existing farm of which we use a very small percentage of the actual total limit.

"Even this small demand was not able to be serviced with the water flow last season and the creek dried up, something which it has never done before.

"Therefore this season we spent the significant capital outlay to build the dam."