Business Development Group newsletter – November 2022

November 2022 | Prepared by Adrian Stone, AgFirst | Future Orchards® Business Development Group newsletter

The November 2022 Future Orchards® Business Development Group newsletter concentrates on crop-load monitoring during hand thinning and on the OrchardNet tools that can support production planning. Adrian Stone of AgFirst encourages growers to “control the controllables” by collecting accurate data and using it to prioritise labour and management attention during a challenging season.

Before hand thinning begins, the newsletter recommends establishing what is actually on the trees. Cluster counts and other pre-thinning counts provide a baseline once secondary-thinner fruit drop has finished. Accurate counters are important, and zoning the tree into areas such as ladder and ground crews can help create clear thinning rules. OrchardNet’s counting tool can be used to reference representative trees and keep the information tied to the block.

Labour availability means the thinning strategy may need to be prioritised. Growers are encouraged to identify the blocks that generate the most value, agree on rules for each block and create a sequence for thinning teams. Monitoring actual labour use against the plan can provide an early warning where a job is taking longer than budgeted or labour supply is insufficient.

Post-thinning counts are equally important. Counting trees behind thinning crews helps confirm whether target crop loads are being achieved, while supervisors should also watch for fruit damage and defects that have been missed. This turns crop-load management into an audited process rather than relying on assumptions about the quality of the completed job.

Fruit sizing is another focus of the update. The newsletter recommends beginning regular fruit-size measurements early enough for the data to influence management and notes that this monitoring can be completed in OrchardNet. Together with accurate tree counts, block areas and production targets, the system can calculate target bud and fruit numbers per tree.

The practical message is to combine counting, labour planning and fruit-size monitoring. By measuring before, during and after hand thinning, growers can identify problems while there is still time to act and can build better block history for future crop-load decisions.