Switching flat green pastures for a landscape
of gold, red, pink and purple has seen Noeleen and Bruce Roberts on a new
career path, thanks to the calla lily flower.
The Matamata couple now run one of the largest
calla lily growing operations around and this month will host a field day
through their packhouse and exporter, Flowerpac.
When Bruce and Noeleen first went into the industry
just years ago, they were told to budget for a $1 profit per exported flower.
The couple estimates that figure might have dropped to more like 80 cents
a flower nowadays.
“It’s a numbers game, you need numbers to earn
money off it,” says Bruce. “We are one of the bigger operations so
you need 100,000 bulbs to really make a living out of it.”
The property is this month hosting the Flowerpac
International 6th annual Calla Growers Field Day on Saturday, March 19,
from 1pm at 655 Okoroire Rd near Tirau.
Flowerpac International managing director Chris
Bergersen the field days are continually growing, with growers coming from
further a field to mix and mingle with other growers, while sharing ideas
on what is happening in the calla market.
“The driving force behind these field days is
to introduce growers to new and innovative ideas in growing to help them
attain the best results possible in growing callas as a cut flower for
export.”
The range of speakers and companies in attendance
at the field day all relate to the successful production of export quality
callas and as always the success of these days depends on the support of
these companies in holding these days.
This year the speakers include Graham Saltiel
from Daltons garden and landscape supplies, Steve Huxtable from Fruitfed
Supplies, Nicola Rochester from Scotts NZ fertilisers, Trevor Allan of
Gro Pacific and Clyde Sinclair of pacific Bio Fertiliser, with two more
speakers to be confirmed.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Best described as a “work in progress”, the Roberts’
property has a new plastic house, chiller, metal pad for truck parking
and new bunkers for storing potting mix.
Flowers are now grown in bins instead of directly
in the ground, so everything is done using forklifts. The day-to-day
process involves forklifts tipping the bins out, the tubers being graded
on the rolling table, and then taken into the chiller room.
The tubers are then cleaned up, de-rooted by a
machine, sized, graded, the exporters are informed of numbers available,
and then the tubers are taken to the exported.
HOUSE HEATING
This year Bruce intends to heat the plastic houses
so the flowers will emerge earlier, when the prices are good. He
says heating the houses is rare, but the Waikato does have colder nights
than the dominant flower growing Bay of Plenty area.
The Roberts’ operation has two 1200 square-metre
plastic growing houses with 456 bins in the new shed. Bruce will
have 1600 bins when another 500 arrive soon.
The number of tubers on the property has risen
slightly, but most money has gone into setting up the facilities so it
runs smoothly. Then Bruce and Noeleen intend to sit back and make
money.
The couple say to make money out of flowers, capital
has to be spent on establishing good facilities to cut down the labour
intensive side of the business, otherwise the workload is too great.
So why grow calla lilies? Simply because they
were Noeleen and Bruce’s flower of choice.
“When we moved here they were in the garden and
we thought they were a pretty flower.”
There is now around 15 different varieties of
calla lilies growing for export on their property.
Five or Six days a week Noeleen or Bruce take
a load of flowers over to Te Puna packer and exporter, Flowerpac.
The couple are currently preparing for the busy season.
WEATHER DEPENDING
While they say generally the flowers ease off
between Christmas and mid-January, with it picking up again until mid-May,
Noeleen says you can never fully predict the busy season as it is all weather-related.
“That’s the flower picking side of it, then the
tubers are dug up and started over again,” says Noeleen.
“We keep them in the chiller until time its time
to put them in the bins.” The Roberts’ employ three staff members
who come in “most days” to help with the picking, sorting and general upkeep
of the operation. Flowers everyday picked, dipped, sorted and taken
to Flowerpac International exporters in Te Puna.
FLOWERPAC SUPPORT
Noeleen and Bruce first got into flower growing,
with 30,000 tubers, when they were looking for a change of path from a
career dairy farming.
“It was just something different, we had been
milking for 20 years and were after a lifestyle change,” says Noeleen.
“We went to one of Flowerpac’s meetings and we were hooked. They
were great with information and really helpful.”
“We wouldn’t have got into it without backing
from Flowerpac. If you have a problem, they have an answer.
The back up was really good in those early years.”
Now Bruce and Noeleen are more inclined to be
able to ‘nut things out’ for themselves as well as helping other new growers.
On-farm maintenance includes spraying for insects
and fungal diseases once a week, or every time it rains.
“It is fairly tough keeping up with spraying,
but it’s worth the extra effort to keep the quality up there,” says Bruce.
Despite this there are more and more growers ‘popping
up’ around the Waikato, Noeleen and Bruce estimating around 27 of them.
The Flowerpac field day on Saturday, March 19,
will involve a guided tour of the Roberts’ operation, as well as eight
or nine guest speakers.
“It’s designed to get people out there and into
calls, come out, have a look and see someone up and running,” says Bruce.
“It’s mainly for newcomers and other people to
pick up ideas.”
