Battunga Gala case study

June 2013 | AgFirst | Future Orchards® grower case study

This case study examines Gala production at Battunga Orchards and the management approach used to lift orchard performance. Future Orchards® case studies focus on measurable outcomes, so the emphasis is on canopy development, fruiting wood, crop load, light and the management detail required to turn those factors into marketable yield.

Later APAL reporting from Battunga described a business that used block-level data and explicit pruning rules to renovate orchards. Gala yield across the farm increased from about 33 t/ha to 55 t/ha as canopy completion, crop-load management, nutrition and growth management were improved. Those later figures help illustrate the direction of the system, although this 2013 case study should be read in its own historical context.

The enduring lesson is that orchard-system improvement depends on numbers rather than visual impressions alone. Canopy fill, bud numbers, target yield, labour cost and packout all need to be measured if a grower wants to know whether a pruning or training change is creating value.