Presenters for the upcoming Future Orchards Spring Series

Published on November 1, 2023

News

Join us at APAL’s November 2023 Future Orchards® Spring Series from 13–17 November, where experts Suzanne Bishop, Garrett Bishop and Craig Hornblow, along with industry leaders, Ross Wilson, Nic Finger and Ian Cover, will delve into tree nutrition, growth regulator usage and the season ahead. Find out more about the speakers or register now if you haven’t already.

Suzanne Bishop

Suzanne Bishop manages the Research and Development Department at Allan Bros., which is based in the Yakima Valley of Washington State (USA). Allan Bros., is a grower and packer operation with just over 500 hectares of apples and 200 hectares of cherries. Over the last 7 years at Allan Bros, she’s overseen a broad variety of projects including soil and plant nutrition, irrigation management, remote sensing, new planting systems, optimising tree vigour and crop loads, postharvest decay resistance management, improving fruit handling procedures in storage and on across packing lines.

Garrett Bishop

Garrett Bishop leads Quality Services for GS Long Company (GSL), an agricultural chemical and fertilizer retailer. He works with fieldstaff, growers and packinghouse operations to help investigate different tree fruit disorders in Oregon and Washington states (USA). These include environmental stresses, nutritional variances, fruit maturity and pathogens in Pome and Stone Fruit crops with a focus on Little Cherry Virus and X-disease Phytoplasma. The role is unique as he is the technical link between University Research studies and GSL Fieldstaff and growers. This equips growers with someone who can keep eyes on a problem, participate in troubleshooting and push for practical short and long term solutions.

Craig Hornblow

Craig has been in the Horticultural industry since 1985 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. Overseas travel has given Craig extensive knowledge of the apple industry and he has led several study tours in countries such as France, Chile, Italy, Germany, USA and Australia.

Ross Wilson

Ross, a founding member of Agfirst, leverages 20+ years of horticultural expertise to provide comprehensive consultancy services. As an experienced grower himself, he empathizes with orchardists’ challenges, offering purchase feasibilities, financial planning, labour recruitment and management, technical and financial guidance. Ross collaborates extensively within the horticultural sector, engaging with various stakeholders including government bodies, banks, packhouses, processors, exporters, retailers, insurers, and manufacturers. His deep-rooted knowledge and hands-on experience empower him to offer tailored one-on-one support, ensuring growers receive holistic guidance for their endeavours. Ross’s commitment to the industry spans from individual growers to the broader horticultural community, fostering sustainable growth and prosperity.

Nic Finger

Nic has played a pivotal role in advancing sustainable fruit production and postharvest practices. His expertise in optimising fruit quality has earned him recognition as a thought leader in the field. Nic’s work focuses on assisting growers with best practices and has been instrumental in shaping industry standards and fostering innovation. Nic is APAL’s Industry Services Manager for Grower Development and Trials.

 

Ian Cover

Ian has an extensive background in the apple and pear industry, having worked for eight years as the Industry Development Officer at Fruit Growers Tasmania. More recently, he spent the last two years developing his technical skills as an Agronomist at Nutrien Ag Solutions, with experience delivering agronomic and export compliance advice, crop monitoring and fruit testing services. Ian is APAL’s Industry Services Manager for Biosecurity & Extension

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