Canterbury

Orchard visit: Michael & Jenny Petherick, West Melton

February 2019

Jenny and Michael have owned their orchard for nearly three years. It was previously owned by Selwyn Manning, and was originally planned by Stephen Brailsford. Since taking on the orchard, Jenny and Michael have increased harvest from 0.7 to 2.4 tonnes.

Orchard visit: Mike & Kathy Davenport, Rolleston

February 2019

Mike and Kathy have another Stephen Brailsford planned orchard of 1000 trees, all planted 12 years ago. They use Organibor, which is a 5-year fertiliser, and have realised that undissolved granules will be removed when cleaning up the orchard floor ready for harvest. At harvest they blow the nuts out of the centre of the row, rake them up and then use the harvester to suck up the nuts. Last year they got 1 kg/tree and are looking for more this year.

AGM Field Trips 2010

Les McCracken

HGA newsletter July 2010

Field trips were held in South Canterbury in association with the AGM. On Saturday, about 50 people attended a field-day at Linda and Les McCracken’s orchard at Ashburton where the focus was on harvesting tools. This included a demonstration of the Italian harvester imported by Les and Linda earlier this year, as well as a sweeper designed and manufactured in Oamaru for Tim and Judith Medlicott.
The McCrackens imported the Super Jolly 2800 after seeing it while at the Hazelnut Congress in Italy in 2008. The complete unit cost approximately $29000 including freight. It uses mechanical pickup, rather than suction, to avoid blockages, and screens out soil and trash. A key advantage for the McCrackens is that the unit can be operated by one person.

Alan Mathewson

HGA newsletter, August 2003

From 2300 Sheep to 2300 Hazelnut Trees in a month! YOU MUST BE NUTS !!!! was the reaction of some of the relatives when we told them we had purchased a property and were going into Hazelnuts. I had been farming (sheep and a few beef) in the Five Forks downlands area of North Otago for the last 14 years in partnership with Janet. Some years ago

I put in a shelter belt on a paddock near the house with the idea of putting it in Hazelnuts. Local growers Don and Helen Newlands informed me of a field day on his property. I ordered 1200 Hazelnut plants and pollinators from Hazelnut Nurseries and then started looking at where to put them! We decided a separate block from the farm would give more options, so for several months looked around the Oamaru area for a suitable block.

Ted Kempe

Amberley, North Canterbury

HGA newsletter, Autumn 2003

In this issue our growers’ corner takes a look at Hazelwood Hazelnuts, and in we are listening to Ted Kempe of Amberley, who is one of the pioneer leaders in New Zealand’s young hazelnut industry. Ted has kindly given us the statistics of his operations.

Bill and Marie Ellery

Swannanoa, North Canterbury

HGA newsletter – Summer 2003

It is important that New Zealand growers of Hazelnuts develop an understanding of what is happening within our industry at the orchard level. Much useful information could be tapped by listening to each HGANZ member talk about what he or she has done which has worked well in their orchard….. or hasn’t worked so well…. equipment that they use or would like to use to make their operation more efficient… or whether they have aspirations to produce Hazelnuts for a living or just as a hobby….or pass advice on to the rest of us.

Each issue of our newsletter will try to touch base with a different grower to see what they are up to in their Hazelnut operation. In this issue we are listening to Bill and Marie Ellery of Rangiora.