www.coolstore.co.nz [email protected] April 2014 ISO WEEK 14-18 Harvest Season 2014 Harvest Season 2014 Post-Harvest Vine Care OGR Comparisons Are Management or Lease Options Right For You? Israel/Thailand Supply Branded HC50 and Sure-Cane 2014 Orders Quality Update April Up-Coming Events Hayward Maturity testing started in Week 10 this year in anticipation of large volumes for Kiwistart as a result of early flowering this season. The early period of Kiwistart was definitely ‘testing’. Brix and Dry Matter proved the deciding factors in majority of our clearances. A combination of warm nights, large fruit and heavy crop loads slowed the rate of Dry Matter accumulation and resulted in clearances failing because they were below the Minimum Taste Standard. While our total submit trays for Week 13 was up 17% on last year, the supply cap was placed by Zespri for the Saturday of the first week of Kiwistart. This resulted in a few late nights of packing to push through as many trays as possible. Aongatete once again achieved a First Past the Post Submit in excess of our Industry share. New Varieties Testing from both Aongatete and AgFirst has shown that young G3 vines producing fruit along the leaders are typically quite variable with very high Dry Matter and TZG— colour and Brix data ranges from mature ‘ready to eat’ fruit right through to completely Green fruit. Our first G3 Grower was cleared at N Protocol to pick on the 25th of March; the second day of Week 13! Since then G3 has steadily matured and kept the packhouse operational while we work around Hayward allocation. Brix levels in G9 are beginning to move, with many nearing the optimum packing Brix level. Rather than aiming for a specific colour protocol we are targeting an average of between 12 and 14 at the time of packing. Because G9 has a tendency to rapidly increase Brix once it begins to fully mature we will be using an average Brix of 10 as an indication to move quickly! G14 matured a bit earlier than expected this year and has performed quite well in both size and Dry Matter. Fruit de-greening on the vine was not as much of an issue as last year with all cleared G14 passing at either Protocol N or Protocol D. G14 has reportedly had some early first drop and this may be an issue into the future for this variety. Extra care should be taken if significant rainfall occurs prior to harvest as this can lead to calyx and splitting on the vine and skin pitting during storage. NIR Application When Gold variety fruit are harvested before N protocol, a small percentage of fruit will require colour conditioning. The NIR technology will allow us to segregate these ‘greener’ fruit and then from the more ‘yellow’ fruit during the packing. The ‘yellow’ fruit can be stored at normal temperatures and the ‘greener’ fruit can then be conditioned at the higher temperatures regime. We anticipate the fruit segregated by colour should be within a standard error of +4 per 100 fruit sample. This season we will be segregating Yellow versus Green fruit and an independent 25 fruit sample from each colour grade will be verified by an independent Lab, i.e. AgFirst. The NIR technology will extract the highest value from our new variety lines because only greener fruit will be continued. Harvest Season 2014 continued... Clean-Up Sprays Pack out results can be improved by the use of clean-up sprays. CP Clean ER (Phosphoric Acid) or Jewel (Lactic Acid) are commonly used by ACL. These are applied at 1.5L/100L and usually most effective at 3,000L/Ha at slow ground speed (<4 Km/Hour). Assess your crop prior to harvest, as a minimum. We recommend that clean-up sprays be used on new varieties when the yields begin to exceed 3,000 TE/ha. Hinga Marsh & Aaron Hokopaura Horticulture Technical Team Post Harvest Vine Care Copper Spray Programme KVH best practice recommends a copper spray with super spreader to be applied immediately after harvest. The aim is to protect the fruit scar from Psa entry (primary infection). Copper coverage is also recommended during the start, middle and end of leaf drop to protect leaf scars from Psa infection. The high risk periods for Psa infection are autumn and spring, especially during wet weather conditions. It is crucial to follow these guidelines, as is secondary Psa symptoms tend to manifest the following spring or summer, at which stage the Psa bacteria will already have established in the plants vascular system. The water rates per hectare should start at 1,000—1,500 L/Ha immediately post-harvest; followed by a reducing rate as leaf drop continues until 700 L/Ha on dormant canes. The following table is the recommended copper programme for April, May and June. Other optional sprays, such as Actigard or foliars are shown in ‘grey’ font and should be considered with high value crops such as new varieties or high risk Psa orchards such as cooler/wet micro-climate areas. The table is a generic crop protection programme for autumn to the start of winter pruning. Hinga Marsh Horticulture Technical Manager 2 OGR Comparisons To date we have received a number of entries for our Australian Holiday Draw. This has provided the opportunity to do several OGR comparisons and we are pleased with the results which certainly show Aongatete has been a great performer. Apart from the straight OGR comparisons we have seen several gaps in reporting from other industry packouts. At Aongatete we give a full accounting as to how ALL of your fruit packs out including how many trays of Class 2, Class 3 and Non Standard Supply fruit are achieved. We think all facilities should be able to supply this information. We also do not charge a reject rate on fruit that is not packed (e.g. Class 2, Class 3 and Non Standard Supply fruit do not incur reject penalties). Are Management or Lease Options Rights For You? Are you struggling to find reliable labour to work your orchard or considering taking a step back and letting someone else run the orchard for you? Let the team at Aongatete help! We have a flexible range of options for leasing, managing or for doing select jobs on your orchards. Graeme Philp of Aongatete leads a team of experienced orchard supervisors who oversee the work on your property. With strict adherence to Psa procedures and protocols our teams can undertake all aspects of your orchard management with you deciding your level of involvement. The team are very knowledgeable on all current growing methods and are proud of the work we do. An example of one of our managed orchards is a Katikati higher altitude orchard which was achieving an average of 5,400 trays per hectare. The owner was considering pulling the orchard out when it was given over to our team for direct management and we took up the challenge. The orchard top blocks are quite windy and we focussed on quality cane selection moving to more low vigour pruning with a focus on using good spur wood along the leaders ensuring fruit across the whole canopy. Improving on the timing of follow up orchard operations including early thinning and summer work all helped improve this orchard so it has now achieved 11,700 per hectare average for the last two years. If you are considering your options give us a call now to see how Aongatete can help you. Tracey Chinnery Grower Services Manager Israel—Thailand Supply Aongatete has been supplying fruit to Israel since 2011 under a special SLA (Supply Level Agreement) with Zespri. This season Aongatete has been selected to supply Thailand under a similar SLA. These programmes have extra phytosanitary requirements that have to be met and not all Grower Packruns are eligible to be shipped to these markets. Both programmes commenced at the beginning of April and to date Aongatete have loaded to both Israel and Thailand. Week commencing Monday 14 April we begin our GA (Sungold) programme to Thailand. As part of participating in these programmes delegations from Thailand, MPI and Zespri will be visiting Aongatete. Graham Teal Fruit Quality Manager Branded HC50 & Sure-Cane 2014 Orders Aongatete are again offering to supply Growers with wholesale prices for HC50 and SureCane. If you have not received a letter from us and would more information or would like to place your order please contact Madeleine Rudge, Grower Services on 07 552 0916 ext 706. Please Note:  All orders must be placed by Tuesday 22 April  If ordering HC50, a condition of purchase is that the purchaser must be a holder of a current GrowSafe Certificate and provide a copy of the certificate with the order. Madeleine Rudge Grower Services 3 www.coolstore.co.nz [email protected] Quality Update — April Pre-Harvest Check List Kiwistart Hayward has started well with an average 34.58 count versus Industry of Withcount. HarvestQuality approaching is time consider offpackouts those other not re33.81 of the itfruit has to been goodchecking with good andjobs rejects prelated to your canopy. Things to consider are: dominantly being Squares and Hayward Mark. □ Loadout yards clear of Weeds The GA has started well also with good packouts averaging 27.62 count versus Industry of 27.03. Rejects have been predominantly blemish. □ Loadout yards levelled – potholes, etc fixed up Sooty Mould has been seen on a few Grower Lines and now with the rain we will □ Suitable facilities and working (hoses ready) observe morewashdown of this. Stain will available also become an issue, therefore good coverage with clean up sprays is essential. □ Toilets cleaned and operational Tracey Chinnery Grower Services Manager Alan Thorn Ph 021 664 276 Grower Services Manager Ph 021 343 576 Our Aongatete Quality Team are working well with the return this season of our experi□ Preferred area available and communicated enced Quality designated Controllers eating and Graders. Richard Allen Grower Services Rep Ph 0275 307 909 □ Blocks numbered for maturity testing Product is loading outclearly well with favourable Zespri Audits. Once again Aongatete is involved with special Zespri Programmes helping to give our Growers a better O.G.R. □ Entrances Clear for Trucks and other vehicles Richard Allen Grower Services Ph 0275 307 909 Graham Teal □ Orchard Hazards noted and reported to Packhouse including details of any canopy Fruit Quality Manager propping, etc □ Any special instructions Up-coming Events for your orchard communicated to Packhouse and Agfirst □ Removal of stock from orchards and loadout areas (preferably a month before harvest) Date Event/Action With the heightened awareness of the issues and implications related to Food Safety April/May  Ensure loading bays are ready harvest…. we are seeing tighter controls and monitoring from for Zespri. If you have any queries about getting your orchard ready for harvest please call your Grower Services Rep. 16 May Andrew Dawson Grower Services Rep Ph 0275 940 247 Andrew Dawson Grower Services Ph 0275 940 247 Rod Calver Grower Services Rep Ph 0275 909 710 Applications close for BoP Young Fruit Grower (NZKGI) Tracey Chinnery Grower ServicesLicence Manager Application Overview and Rules 12 May 2014 23 May 11,12,13,14,15 June 18 June (Published on Canopy Website in January) Application process opens 2014 Licence Allocation Bids Close (Cooney Lees Morgan, Level 3 247 Cameron Road, PO Box 143, Tauranga 3140 Mystery Creek Fieldays Madeleine Rudge Margaret Miller Grower Services Grower Services Ph: 07 552 0916 Ph 0275 763 899 Young Fruit Grower of the Year Competition and Dinner (See NZKGI website for more details) Graeme Philp Field Operations Manager Ph: 021 921 584 Rod Calver Grower Services Ph 0275 909 710 RD4 | Katikati | 3181 Hinga Marsh Hort Technical Manager Ph 021 047 1013