Spring Future Orchards® Walk – South Australia

Dirk van Hees in consultant with Fruitconsult. His family has been in fruit production for four generations. Leading Dirk to study horticulture and arable farming, during his study he commenced undertook four traineeships, one with Fruitconsult, and with three different fruit growers in Victoria, Australia. After completing his studies he returned to work for Fruitconsult in 2010 as a fruit consultant, specifically in tree management and fertilisation. Dirks clients are predominantly based in Holland, Czech Republic and Denmark. In 2018 expanding to include projects in China. Since 2013 Dirk has been involved in the redevelopment of the experimental farm, Proeftuin Randwijk. Conducting a range of field research projects and trials.

Craig Hornblow has been in the horticultural industry for over 30 years and with Agfirst since 1995.

Specialising in apples Craig has travelled extensively throughout Europe and USA studying Dwarf tree management and chemical thinning.

Craig is also strongly committed to grower education and regularly leads field days in New Zealand as well as overseas, bringing to his audience the latest technical advances and good tree management techniques.

He regularly provide advice to clients on financial planning and monitoring, training and management, field research and new technology in production systems and fruit quality, and on purchase feasibilities.

Angus Hogan is the Horticulture Project Lead at SwarmFarm Robotics, a company delivering autonomous solutions to the Australian agriculture industry. Angus comes from an irrigated cropping and livestock farming family, has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering and is completing a Graduate Certificate of Precision Agriculture. Prior to starting this role he was the Fuse Technologies Product Manager at AGCO, where he was responsible for product introduction, marketing strategy, dealer development and product support for AGCO’s precision ag portfolio across Australia and New Zealand. Angus is based in Shepparton where he is leading the Hort Innovation project: “AP16005 – Developing agri-tech solutions to the Australian apple industry”, a project that is developing commercial solutions to utilise variable rate chemical flower thinning as a tool for the better management of crop load.