Monitor block data — Orange, New South Wales

March/April 2007 | Future Orchards® 2012 | regional monitor-block data

This Future Orchards® monitor-block handout records detailed production and financial information for apple blocks in Orange, New South Wales. The document combines physical block descriptions with annual performance data so growers can compare orchard structure, productivity, packout and profitability rather than relying on yield alone.

The Orange dataset includes information such as variety, rootstock, tree density, soil type, planting year, irrigation system and establishment cost, followed by gross yield, Grade 1 yield, packout, fruit size and block profit. One Cripps Pink block on M26, for example, recorded 52.89 t/ha gross yield in 2006 but only 32% Grade 1 packout after considerable hail damage, demonstrating how fruit quality can strongly alter the financial result even where total yield is substantial.

The handout also records pruning, thinning, harvest and other orchard costs, together with TRV and TCA growth measurements and photopoints. The analysis uses an orchard-gate return, with post-harvest costs netted off, allowing blocks to be compared on a more consistent basis. These records illustrate the Future Orchards approach of linking physical orchard measurements with financial outcomes to identify where management changes are most likely to improve performance.