Tony’s Take on avos with Tony Bradley Aongatete Avocados Ltd

I’m struggling to find my topic. I usually go to our work environment or to the seasonal activities on the orchard and then to my own orchard practises. However today I will write about finding information that will improve our knowledge. I don’t want to harp on to you, but I use this column to pass some information on to other growers. The difficulty of this is to stay at the sharp end of the information cycle. How do you do that? How do you get the best information?

There are a number of consultants in the field. Growers range in their views about consultants. Consultants are like a walking encyclopaedia. They carry a wealth of knowledge and are usually at the leading edge of the information cycle, either because they are experienced growers, have technical training or have built a set of knowledge from mixing and experiencing a range of growing situations. Some are growers, some are technicians, some are experienced, and others are new thinking.

Growers often talk with me and suggest there are mixed messages from consultants. In principle good consultants are along the same core lines. Feeding with nutrients improves yield and tree health, spraying for pests gives better quality fruit etc etc.

The other day a grower looking at their soil microbiology and organic activity suggested my approach was not as holistic as they wanted. It got me thinking and reviewing our involvement in sustainable production methods and techniques.

On review I am pleased to say their message was not totally accurate because although we hadn’t discussed soils and their living environment, their view was formed because we haven’t published or talked about our involvement in sustainable soils. On wider reflection, we at AAL are involved in a number of research trials, we utilise sustainable practices across our business and producing activities. I now realise our weakness is our communication.

This leads onto our ability to communicate in today’s world. It is full of messages and deciphering the clutter can be challenging. I remember last year at an industry dinner, a speech was made comparing companies using the internet as the source of the information. The speaker had gone to the internet and gathered data to compare companies and their support of the local communities. This speech was using information only available on the internet, a source of first call to find information. I am aware of some of the outcomes of that speech however it quite clearly hits me now that we at AAL are also guilty of not conveying all our involvement and all our support. People won’t know about our involvement in R&D unless they ask us or we in fact open our own encyclopaedia and pass on the knowledge. Therefore do our growers get the full view and therefore robust information on which to make decisions?

At AAL we are focussed in staying at the leading edge. The AvoJect Syringe is a very good example of leading new technology for the marketplace. We have more than staff degree qualified in their fields of expertise so we have the capacity to be technically very good. We are spending 10 per cent of our net revenues on research and development and have a number of new products currently being developed for avocado growers, coming to the market. New avocado enhancing, sustainability based products. We want to be leading edge and we also want to be sustainable, productive, profitable and a good employer.

Why do we do this? We do it so we can be the best we can be, so we are happy using the best growing methods and so we are living and working as a team and enjoying all we do. That’s part of why we are avocado growers, why we live in a rural community and why we help participate and support our rural community.

We do it because we enjoy the lifestyle despite the wet winter, the rainy days and the… And most importantly we love growing avocados.