Transcript of Noel and Bev Fisher Tranquil Hills Orchards The Story of Precious and Arnold Pigs in love.
- Slide 1
- Noel and Bev Fisher Tranquil Hills Orchards The Story of
Precious and Arnold Pigs in love.
- Slide 2
- The History of the farm
- Slide 3
- The Family Heritage Granddads wish was that the farm would
remain in family hands and this tradition continued when my mother
and father retired, my husband Noel and myself took over the reins.
We hope to hand the orchard down to our two sons when we are ready
to retire.
- Slide 4
- History We purchased the family citrus orchard in 2000, with
the intention of continuing our plumbing business and maintaining
the orchard for 3 years before retiring. The aim was to deal only
with two large companies who would take the fruit.
- Slide 5
- History One a jam manufacturer, and the other a juice
manufacturer. The Jam manufacturer would take all the navel oranges
in July and the Juice manufacturer would take all the Valencia
oranges in November.
- Slide 6
- History continued The Jam manufacturer was still happy to take
the navel oranges, but the juice manufacturer was bought out by a
large company and so we were uncertain of our future.
- Slide 7
- History We started to explore other options for fruit sales
such as Trash and Treasure Markets.
- Slide 8
- Farmers Markets Then I heard about the Albury Farmers Market
and I approached the coordinator for permission to sell the oranges
at Albury, which was granted. The sales at the Albury far
outstripped the trash and treasure market in Cobram. Instead of
taking a station wagon full of oranges to market it was soon
necessary for Noel to become involved and drive a small truck to
market. Noel discovered that he really enjoyed the market,
socializing with other farmers, sharing information about
fertilizers, watering techniques etc.
- Slide 9
- Farmers Markets continued We soon realized that selling the
public was only one aspect of the farmers market. The networking
between stall holders became a very profitable and enjoyable part
of the process. Other stall holders that were making jam and
relishes soon started to buy our fruit.
- Slide 10
- Farmers Markets Also small restaurants and chefs started to
approach Tranquil Hills to order oranges for freshly squeezed juice
which meant that often 60 kilos of oranges was sold before it even
got to market. We grew more exotic \ fruits such as Limes, Buddhas
hands, Native citrus varieties and Blood Oranges
- Slide 11
- Value Adding While this was great, we discovered that, the
people really making the money from the product were the value
adders. So we extended our Products to include Juice and
marmalade.
- Slide 12
- Value Adding continued Value adding was not as simple as it
seemed. Before you can sell a product you need to have a food
handlers license which involves going to Tafe to study. The council
then charges you a fee ranging from $150 to $400 depending on what
you manufacture. You need to have insurance which can cost up to
$600 per year.
- Slide 13
- Value Adding continued Packaging can be expensive and you
cannot use secondhand bottles for jam. We purchased our bottles in
bulk from Melbourne because the freight costs were expensive if you
just bought a box where as a pallet was the cheaper option. The
other alternative was to take a ute down to the city and buy up for
the year.
- Slide 14
- Value Adding continued Labeling can be expensive too. There are
very strict regulations about the information on a label such as
name, address and contact details of the manufacturer. A
nutritional panel is required if there is more than one ingredient.
I learned how to create my own nutritional panel via a website and
printed my own labels.
- Slide 15
- Value Adding continued However if you want to capture the
gourmet market you need to have professional looking labels
printed. This means you need to design your own or pay a graphic
designer to create the right look for you.
- Slide 16
- Marketing Our Marmalade got a mention in the Age Epicure which
boosted sales. This was achieved by emailing the food journalist
and offering to send samples.
- Slide 17
- Farm Gate Trail We became part of the Sun Country Farm Gate
Trail which was a group of 19 farmers who joined forces to put
together a brochure for people who wanted to visit a real farm,
meet the farmer and buy produce direct at the farm gate.
- Slide 18
- Farm Gate Trail The Farm Gate Trail has been a huge success
with numbers increasing dramatically each year. One thing that
happened that was strange was that people where more interested in
our pet pig Precious than the orchard.
- Slide 19
- Precious and Arnold Pigs in Love We taught Precious to sit
because she was such a messy and enthusiastic eater that we needed
to control her for our own survival. However she was very lonely so
we looked around for a boy friend for her.
- Slide 20
- Arnold the Pig Consequently we invited a famous pig to come and
live on our property. Arnold was being evicted from his home in
Melbourne because of complaints from a neighbor and the shire
council had threatened to have him de sexed which could have proved
fatal at his age of 5 years old.
- Slide 21
- Precious and Arnold Pigs in Love Arnolds plight was broadcast
on a Current Affair and we contacted Arnolds family and invited him
to come and live with our female pig Precious. Arnold came to stay
with us for 3 weeks while his family battled the courts and
won.
- Slide 22
- The Pig Lovers Pignic We held a Pig Lovers Pignic to celebrate
the engagement of Precious and Arnold, with a pink heart shaped
cake. The cake decorator could not believe that we were having a
cake made for the pigs. We had a pig circus by the name of the
Wonder Pigs there to entertain the 600 people who attended on the
day.
- Slide 23
- Arnold and Precious Pigs in love Win TV filmed the event and
the Age sent a photographer and Journalist which resulted in a page
3 story. Which claimed that Arnold could be Mooted, Looted, Rooted
and Neutered all in the space of a few months.
- Slide 24
- The Story of Precious and Arnold Pigs in Love. All the
publicity of the piggy saga resulted in interest from several TV
networks. So we had a visit from John Wood from Wine Me Dine
Me,
- Slide 25
- Media Exposure Paul Cronin from Discover Down Under filmed an
episode at Tranquil Hills.
- Slide 26
- Media Exposure Geoff Cox judged our first Marmalade competition
as part of an episode of Coxys Big Break.
- Slide 27
- Media Exposure The second marmalade competition was judged by
Charles Wooley, I rang up one day on air and suggested a marmalade
making competition and he agreed to judge the finalists live on air
on his national radio program.
- Slide 28
- Media Exposure Recently Harry (Preciouss new toy boy) and
Precious were featured on Talk to the Animals and Harry starred in
Travel Oz on ABC TV.
- Slide 29
- Media Exposure Our last TV show to visit was Paul Mecurios
Menu. Paul came to film oranges being picked to cook a pork and
orange dish.
- Slide 30
- Media Exposure The Sun Country Farm Gate Trail Producers
attended the SBS Food Journey Festival in Melbourne
- Slide 31
- Going online In this modern world you need to be on line to be
effective at marketing. We set up a website with interactive on
line sales to sell our products direct to the public. Contact
Ballarat local business UBC Web Design www.ubcwebdesign.com.au
www.ubcwebdesign.com.au www.tranquilhills.com.au Other effective
marketing tools are twitter and face book. Consider your farm to be
your product and sell it direct to the public.
- Slide 32
- Buses and Group Visits The increased media exposure put us on
the radar for bus companies and groups wanting to visit us. We had
car clubs, caravan clubs, probus groups and bird watching groups
visiting regularly.
- Slide 33
- Where we are now Last year we both took jobs off farm and
decided to stop the seven day a week constant activity that had
become our lives and revert to bulk sales of our fruit.
- Slide 34
- Citrus Production Citrus production does not require the use of
strong chemicals. We use copper and white oil sprays and a small
amount of round up on the young trees to help them survive but as
soon as they start producing fruit we stop using round up.
- Slide 35
- Citrus Production We have been systematically replanting the
orchard and he spent some time and figured out some new strategies
for planting fruit trees and setting up watering systems to help
them to survive the first year of production.
- Slide 36
- Biological Control of Pests One of the methods that we use to
control insects is biological control. We purchase tiny predatory
wasps to kill the scale on our fruit. The wasps are yellow and
about the size of a pin head.
- Slide 37
- Biological Control of Pests We buy them from scientists in
South Australia who have them freighted to us in eskies with ice
packs to keep them cool. Thousands of wasps are in the pack. The
wasps are packaged in paper coffee cups with shredded paper
inside
- Slide 38
- Biological Control of Pests We are warned of the arrival of the
package and always go into the post office early because many times
the postal workers have stacked the box of wasps up against a
window in direct sunlight and the poor little things were half dead
when we got them.
- Slide 39
- Biological Control of Pests One day a postal worker announced
to the packed post office crowd that my live orgasms had
arrived.
- Slide 40
- Biological Control of Pests To release the bugs we walk into
the orchard one row from the track and open the lid of the coffee
cup. Then we walk down the rows of trees and every 5 th tree we
stop and pull out a piece of paper with the bugs on it and place it
in the branches of the tree.
- Slide 41
- Biological Control of Pests As we are walking along the bugs
fly out. We dont put the bugs in every tree in the block because we
want them to spread out and multiply. So we skip a few rows and
continue placing the bugs in every fifth tree.
- Slide 42
- Biological Control of Pests It is not unusual to have the
little critters on your tee shirt and in your hair. I always wear
sunglasses to keep them out of my eyes. They are so tiny you can
hardly see them and they do not bite but after walking over 80
acres with yellow bugs all over you it is nice to have a long hot
shower.
- Slide 43
- Biological Control of Pests We have noticed a significant
decline in scale on our fruit since we started using the bugs. It
costs about $500 per batch and we do four batches per year. However
our use of white oil has decreased dramatically which saves us
money in the long run.
- Slide 44
- Biological Control of Pests Scientists are now working on a
predatory wasp that kills fruit fly. For some time now the DPI have
been releasing sterile fruit flies to reduce the amount of flies
that breed and produce larvae. However this wasp attacks the larvae
so it should be an exciting development.
- Slide 45
- Biological Control of Pests Recently we trialed some fruit fly
baits with insecticide added which can be used in conjunction to an
organic bait spray.
- Slide 46
- Biological Control of Weeds We have worked with other
scientists with insects for the control of bridle creeper. Which is
a vicious weed that strangles the trees. It used to be known as
Tahitian Bridal veil and was sold as a pot plant. Now it is out of
control and because it has a bulb and berries it is hard to
eliminate. Noel says if you could smoke it there would be no
problem getting rid of it.
- Slide 47
- Biological Control of Weeds It can be sprayed with a
combination of Round up and other potent chemicals but this can
damage the tree. We cut it out by hand in the early days but it has
become too wide spread to deal with now. The CSIRO have developed a
rust and an insect to help to control it. The rust only works if
you do not spray with copper.
- Slide 48
- Biological Control of Weeds The bridle creeper hopper seems to
have some potential to eliminate the weed so long as no harsh
chemicals are used. I remember one day we were with a study group
passing around a container of bridle creeper hoppers when one of
the men squashed a hopper with his thumb. The lady scientist came
over and said. Oh not Harold! He was my favorite. The man looked so
guilty she had to admit she was just joking as she breeds millions
of them at a time.
- Slide 49
- Natural Fertilization Due to the high cost of fertilizer we
have been using composted Cow Manure for the last few years and has
found a major improvement in the trees, leaf growth, fruit size and
yield have improved.
- Slide 50
- Setting up your own orchard Factors to consider when setting up
your own orchard are: Soil Type depending on the fruit that you
intend to grow, you will need suitable soil. Climate Some fruit
trees are intolerant to frost especially when young.
- Slide 51
- Setting up your own orchard Water Make sure you have an
adequate water right or can purchase permanent water. Suitable
irrigation system is essential as rainfall alone will not be
sufficient and the crop must be watered at specific times in the
growth of the fruit.
- Slide 52
- Setting up your own orchard Purchasing good quality fruit trees
is important. We prefer to by bare rooted trees grafted to tri
stock but that can vary depending on your soil type. Regenerating
an old orchard can be hard also because you will loose production
for up to 5 years depending on what varieties you plant.
- Slide 53
- Setting up your own orchard Planting what will sell Do your
research about what sells in the market. Dont be too quick to go
for expensive varieties such as limes because the prices are always
down when there is abundance of fruit and limes have to be sold
within 1 month because once the color has changed from green to
yellow they are worthless.
- Slide 54
- Setting up your own orchard Stick to varieties that you know
will sell. The middle of the road fruit varieties such as Valencias
and Navel oranges will always have a market. More exotic fruits
have limited markets.
- Slide 55
- Setting up your own orchard Be proactive with your marketing.
Sell it before your grow it not the other way round otherwise your
find you are a price taker not a price maker.
- Slide 56
- Copy of presentation If you would like a copy of this
presentation visit www.tranquilhills.com.au to download Power Point
Presentationwww.tranquilhills.com.au OR We have printed version of
this presentations available for $15 each
- Slide 57
- Questions