Dive into data

Don’t have the skills or time to write your own data analysis program, or deterred by the idea of entering a mass of data into a new off-the-shelf program that might not meet your needs? 

Why not try the Australian apple and pear industry orchard management decision-support tool OrchardNet? 

OrchardNet is a cloud-based orchard management tool, developed by AgFirst for – and free for use by – the pome industry, that allows you to enter data, review historical performance, set and plan how to meet your goals for the following season, and compare results block by block or against industry averages for production or profit/ha among other metrics. 

You can play around with what OrchardNet can do via an Australian demo orchard account using the login details below or sign up and set up and run reports on your own block with as little as seven pieces of data, such as:

• block size/planted area 
• growing system 
• variety 
• number of trees 
• row/tree spacing 
• planted year 
• yield 
• packout 
• average fruit weight. 

Don’t have time to enter all your own returns and cost data? Use the industry averages built up over 15 years instead to get a feel for how your block is performing against the industry average and upper quartile.  

To go to the demo site, go to the OrchardNet login page http://www.hortwatch.com/orchardnet/ and use the following username and password:
Username: Augrower
Password: cobber

AgFirst consultant Jonathan Brookes used OrchardNet reports during the recent Future Orchards® Harvest Orchard Walks to illustrate block performance against industry benchmarks and the effect of biennial variation on profitability, and to set crop load targets and management plans to improve performance. Jonathan said having the data on how each block was performing was key to focusing management effort where it was needed and would have the biggest impact. 

“If you look at your whole business and think I’m losing some serious money here, it is hard work to do anything about it,” Jonathan said. “But if you can sit there and say those four blocks are screaming money and the rest of them are either holding their own or doing quite well, you are then looking at just four blocks and that’s a lot easier to manage. But you have to have the data to get to that.” 

A Lady in Red block in its fifth year viewed during the recent orchard walk at Kirup, WA, was performing in line with the upper quartile of national production. Based on data to date, AgFirst consultant Jonathan Brookes suggested a 2024 target of around 60—65 T/ha, with a winter bud count target of 216 winter buds/ tree.

Further information 

To try OrchardNet, either contact your local Front Line Advisor or email [email protected] for set-up assistance. 

Read “Farming by numbers, metrics that matter” from the Winter 2021 edition of AFG: https://apal.org.au/farming-by-numbers-metrics-that-matter/

This article was first published in the Autumn 2023 edition of AFG.