Tony’s Take on avos with Tony Bradley Aongatete Avocados Ltd

It’s that time of the year: we’re coming out the other side of winter and the shortest day has been and gone.  We had some cold weather in May but June shaped up to be wet.

For avocado growers, the focus is getting through winter as unscathed as possible so the trees head into spring in the best condition.

Last month I talked about planning and now we’re ready to action that plan because we are on our way to spring and summer.

If July is warm, start getting the fertiliser on early – use a little, and often.  It takes about four to six weeks for the nutrients to get through the soil system and into a useful place for the tree. At AAL we are starting early; we want our trees in the best position possible to grab nutrients and grow.

As well as the planning don’t forget to put your feet up and enjoy the bottom of winter.

Costing

I’ve done some analysis and in the time I’ve been involved in avocados there have been some cost increases come through, and I believe we as growers will face another round of costs.

We now budget $12,000 per ha to operate the orchards (excluding fixed costs). One of the biggest impacts on this is traveling time to get to a worksite and to get started.

As growers, we need our contractors operating safely and carefully. Taking the time to get the health and safety processes set up is a cost we should expect to see.

Getting sorted

The machine checks and the documentation is a core part of the daily work. I want to see our contractors taking their time, as we all have responsibilities for health and safety on our orchards.

It’s the time to lock in your picking contactors and review your arrangements with other contractors. Staffing is a bigger issue than last year, and getting, retaining and having enough staff to support our industry is a challenge, regardless of the region.

And on that note it’s time to begin actioning my next growing season plans, fertilising, readying for the spring injection programme, organising contractors and getting outside between the showers to enjoy the last of the winter months.