WITH 340,000 almond trees planted over 615 hectares, CMV orchard manager Jeremy Miatke and his team have plenty to keep them busy all year round.
And it was only five years ago, in 2016, when the property along Stanitzki Road near Loxton was completely bare.
Mr Miatke took up the job in 2016 alongside one other employee to help establish the revolutionary development.
Fast forward to now and the site boasts 17 full-time staff.
“Going from a bare paddock to 340,000 trees that are now coming into full production is just massive,” Mr Miatke said.
The first plantings were probably as thick as your little finger and going from the trellis system we had, and plastic guards to what we have now, is just a massive change.
“Plus going from just a couple of workers to a full workforce and a developed orchard has just been fantastic.
“It’s fantastic for the region and especially Loxton where our workers pay rates or rent, and spend their money there.”
While the property near Loxton is in its infancy, CMV Farms is well versed in almond production, with its Lindsay Point site established since 1981.
The initial 6.5 hectares has grown into the 488 hectares.
Mr Miatke said the current season was shaping up to be “excellent”.
“For us we’ve gone through the fruit set stage after the pollination stage… we had a slight nut drop after four weeks, which is usually unpollinated nuts,” he said.
“We had a bit come off because of some 50km/h winds but not a huge amount.”
Mr Miatke said the focus has now turned to fertigation and watering.
“We’re also chasing a bit of extension growth through the trees and setting up for next year’s crop just trying to find the right balance between crop load and extension growth, which can mean adjusting fertilizer budgets if needed” he said.
“Leading up to pit hardening, obviously that’s when the trees will turn and use more water, the shells start to solidify and the nut begins to harden.
“Really monitoring a few things like that on the trees are very important for us this time of year.”
Mr Miatke also reported no shortage of things happening on the operations side.
“We have a hygiene pass going on, so we’re blowing and flailing,” he said.
“We’ll do the whole property so that should be done in the next week and we’ll do another one pass when we’ve had a bit more rain and wind leading up to harvest.
“Obviously with the reasonable amount of rain we had a few weeks ago now, we had to go and put a fungicide spray on.
“So, it’s really waiting for the rain, but if we don’t get the rain, we’re in with the folio nutrients.
“That’s pretty well it… probably the biggest one for us is the irrigation and fertigation at the moment.”
The property’s plantings are still in their initial stages, with the trees building up to full production.
“This property will be coming onto its fourth harvest so it’s heading towards full production within the next few years,” Mr Miatke said.
“It’s starting to level out and we can get some data to follow on from, but this year pollination was fantastic.
We couldn’t have got better weather and leading into the September period.
“So far, the season looks really promising and it’s warming up now.
“Soil temp is getting up to about 16C, which is probably a degree warmer than what is has been the last few years.”
The team out at CMV aims to harvest at the beginning of February each year.
“We start early February because we always shake a little bit green and we do have some younger trees,” Jeremy said.
“With our system of how we harvest by removing all product from the orchard and drying it in the open, which is conditioning it at the same time and reduces drying time allows us to shake a little bit greener.”
Mr Miatke said that sustainability and water consciousness were emerging factors in growing and producing almonds.
“How we use our water is a big thing on the radar at the moment,” he said.
“We all have, including myself, dig sticks, so I probably do 10 to 20 up to 50 digs a week, depending on what we have on and the irrigation guys will do double that.
“Then we correlate all that data for a weekly meeting to see where we’re at with moistures and see where we can back off and not push any past the root zones and we just monitor that daily.
That’s the biggest thing is to make sure we’re not wasting any water and giving the trees what they need.
“And same with fertiliser.
We don’t want to be throwing fertiliser out for no reason so we’re constantly doing leaf and soil (analysis) to see if we are on target for fertiliser inputs for the year.”
Mr Miatke said other almond producers in the industry were also prioritising sustainable practices.
“I think going back through the drought in the early 2000s, people probably woke up a bit to water usage and got a bit smarter when it comes to water,” he said.
“We’re all drip irrigation too, so we monitor our water usage very closely “At the moment our hulls get used for cattle feed, which is pretty sustainable and going back into the environment in a different way.
“I think we will look at ways we can bring them back into the orchard in some sort of mulch way.
“So, I think we are looking into things like that and it will become part of the future.”
