Tech future proofs hort operation
A couple of challenging years has not stopped one of the country’s leading commercial growers from investing in state-ofthe- art technology.
He says the cabbages are already in the ground because they take the longest to grow and the other plants will be going in soon. He believes that the summer supply will be excellent.
Burke says it's been an interesting six months and while Cyclone Gabrielle didn't hit them as badly as it did Hawke's Bay, Leaderbrand has still had to cope with a very wet and difficult winter. He says it will be interesting to see how spring kicks in.
"It was worse than last winter and there was no land preparation; we were always down on the amount of land that was available because of the wet summer and the cyclone," Burke told Hort News. "We have had a winter where we didn't hit our volume targets so that's been a challenge."
Leaderbrand has also had issues in Pukekohe and to a lesser degree in Matamata where the company also grows crops. Burke says the rain made planting difficult in winter and for a couple of weeks they were scratching around to get supply. He says the impacts of the cyclone and the rain may be felt for some time yet.
Burke says people need to understand what it means for them if extremes of wet and dry weather continue. He says infrastructure has generally been designed for the past and it needs to be upgraded.
"We still have to address our drainage and river management, which we used to be pretty damn good at," Burke told Hort News.
"But we have fallen off that and other things have taken priority. As a region - and probably as a country - we need to get those priorities back on track and use our infrastructure wisely."
