Our Sustainability Story
We believed that a more sustainable and cost competitive model was required to produce avocados, allowing earlier returns, improved production per hectare, all the while improving soil and tree health!
Dandy Produce was created originally as a small crops farm, producing Capsicums, Watermelons, pumpkins, Cucumbers and Sugar Cane. After multiple years of chasing that elusive "good year" - The team decided they needed to pivot to create a farm that was more intensive, more challenging and more profitable.
With the agronomic experience of 3 Directors, the energy of youth and enthusiasm, coupled with the reality of the Accountant, we came up with a system that we thought had fantastic potential.
The first tree planting began in 2015 and now we have developed a sustainable Ultra High Density Avocado and Macadamia Orchard.
Along the way we have had to change and question everything we knew about Avocados to ensure a system that would grow healthy Avocados.
We aimed to produce an orchard that uses less water, improves our soil health and maintain small, more manageable trees.
We created a spraying system that sprays over the top of trees, ensuring optimal contact, minimising drift and impacts on surrounding bushland.
Andy previously had Nursery experience and at the time it was a 3 year lead in for Avocado trees, so we started our own Nursery, The AvoTree Nursery initially it was just for us, but then we started getting local and then national tree orders, so the nursery grew.
The AvoTree Nursery is now a standalone business that still provides us with trees!
As we grew and learnt from our mistakes we realised that different rootstocks were the priority for our new system and we got to work designing and trialling many different rootstocks that would provide a lower vigour tree. Coupled with repetitive trials around canopy management, soil type, growth regulants - all in an effort to measure success/failure of the system
At Dandy produce we believe that a healthy soil provides the best outcome to both tree yields and tree health, allowing for a profitable return year after year.
At Dandy Produce we employ a range of sustainable and regenerative agronomic practices that advocate for This outcome.
We believe these practices are at the forefront of making our farming strategy superior.
See more details below.
Water, Irrigation, Sensors
We employ technologically advanced plant and soil monitoring systems to help provide real time data to make more informed management decisions around orchard management
Our trees are managed with multiple drip lines that are run autonomously via a sophisticated management software program.
We feed our trees via this irrigation system and follow a very well planned and documented nutrition program that focuses on the growth aspects of our trees including, weather, growth stage, fruit load, tree health and soil health.
We have subsurface drainage under our orchard that helps to remove excess moisture and return it to our dams, therefore reducing run-off into the reef catchment area.
We also have catchments pts that allow for testing of our drainage water for nutrient leaching and water quality.
We return the tree prunings to under neath the tree to improve soil health, soil biodiversity and help to assist phytophthora management.
Soil Health and Biodiversity
Our mid-rows of our trees are planted to living cover crop species that promote biodiversity by supplying additional pollen sources to attract and retain beneficial pollinators and insects.
We add mulch to our tree beds to ensure optimal tree and root health and reduce any losses of water to evaporation. This creates a cooling effect in our root zone creating a more desirable environment for beneficial soil microbes and tree health.
We have a rigorous canopy management program and mulch our tree prunings so they are returned to the soil, this enhances soil health and acts as a suppressant to root diseases.
The addition of soil ameliorants and soil conditioners are used to enhance soil biology, promote indigenous soil species and improve root and tree health.
