Business Development Group Update – December 2015

December 2015 | Future Orchards® Business Development Group | newsletter

The December 2015 Business Development Group update uses OrchardNet data to illustrate improvements in Australian apple productivity and to encourage growers to compare their own blocks with national and upper-quartile performance.

Royal Gala blocks in the database were averaging about 41 tonnes per hectare in the 2015 harvest with 77% Class 1 packout, while mature Gala averaged around 40 tonnes per hectare and the upper quartile around 63 tonnes per hectare. Cripps Pink-type blocks also showed a wide spread between average and upper-quartile performance, demonstrating the potential value of identifying the practices behind stronger blocks.

The newsletter also promotes fruit-size monitoring as another practical benchmarking tool. Combining yield history, packout and fruit-growth data helps growers define where a block sits relative to peers and where management changes may improve profitability.