ALMOST from the moment he could walk, Virginia’s Doug Nicol (pictured) was out in the paddocks helping his parents hand-pick carrots to be sold at market.

Fast-forward to now and Nicol Carrots is a second-generation family company producing an average of 120 tonnes of carrots a day, from across 250 hectares.

It has retail partnerships that see its carrots sold locally.

They can be found in Drakes supermarkets, most local Foodland stores, most greengrocers supplying the “pick-alocal” line, and Woolworths stores across South Australia, as well as many other independent grocers, such as Gawler’s She’s Apples and the Barossa Co-op Foodland.

While much of the operation has been mechanised over the years, it still employs 40 employees – from those who operate the harvesters in the fields to those in the washing, sorting and packaging production areas.

Doug is passionate about continuing the family business – founded by his parents Margaret and (the late) Barry Nicol in 1963 – and keeping local produce on local shelves.

“Local produce is what we specialise in, but we also export and send all over Australia as well,” he said.

“But our local customers are our most important.

“Our company is built on producing a quality product and looking after its customers 12 months of the year.”

At first, the family business had multiple lines, including potatoes, onions, cabbages and cauliflower.

“Eventually we weeded the other lines out and focused on carrots to become more efficient and to mechanise ourselves for that one product, because every product requires different equipment and machinery,” son Doug said.

“And it was a product we could produce well and market and grow 12 months of the year.”

In response to growing customer demand for bagged carrots, the company installed its first weigh head, with two bag-on-roll bagging machines in the mid- 1990s.

It now has a combination of four weigh heads and eight bag-on-roll machines.

Two years ago, a new loading dock for trucks, with reception and admin space above, was completed.

“We have mechanised where we can to keep costs down, because we still get the same for our product today as what we were getting 40 years ago,” Doug said.

“The only way we can survive is to produce that product better and cut down on our labour inputs.”

As with most of the farming industry, the quality of carrots is at the mercy of the weather.

"It was a product we could produce well and market and grow 12 months of the year. They’re not grown in a controlled environment so we are still open to the elements,” Doug said.

You don’t always get it right – coming out of winter into spring can be dangerous because the ground has been so cold and it warms up all of a sudden.

Summer has extreme heat."

“But now’s the perfect time of the year; it’s beautiful, not too hot, not too cold and the ground temperature is still warm.”

Responsible farming practices are an important part of the process, with the paddocks used in rotation or given a cover crop to help regenerate the soil.

“We aim and strive to get the freshest products available on the shelf as quickly as possible because a carrot, every day it gets older, it tastes different,” Doug said.

“Some of ours are on the shelf in 24 hours; it depends where it goes and where the customer is.

“Locally, it’s quite possible for a customer to pick a pack up that’s only left our premises the night before.”

Doug said while a lot had changed over the years, receiving positive feedback from the customer remained one of the most rewarding things for the company.

"So is stopping into a local supermarket and proudly seeing Nicol-branded products on the shelf," he said.