Recently we were recognised in the Deloitte Fast 50 as the fastest growing agribusiness in the Christchurch & Upper South Island region for 2019. We also featured 8th in the country on their Master of Growth Index that recognises consistent financial gains in excess of $5 million.
Each award is testament to our agronomic approach, and they come off the back of steady growth and a commitment to innovation in recent years.
Based in Ashburton, we’ve grown from five to 27 staff over the past five years. Employing 13 representatives made up of established veterans and the country’s top young talent means we can say we only hire the best of the best. Our internship programme gives graduate agronomists a broad view of our business, and after learning under experts with decades of experience the results speak for themselves.
Originally dealing in solely in the wholesale market, in 2015 we shifted our focus to a direct-to-farmer service; realising we could make more of an impact on success by partnering with farmers on the ground. Our core service as we’re known for today came as a result of that shift; and we take pride in being able to provide a fixed-price, end-to-end crop management service that has our farmers enjoying crop yields in the top 25% of New Zealand.
CFO Lance Bellew says that winning farmers over in the beginning was relatively easy. “As time’s gone on there's been more pressure with regulations and being more cost-effective, so they turn to a more innovative approach”. Combined with the fact that there’s always something else that needs to be done on the farm, our customers see the value in contracting us as third-party crop managers.
We aren’t the only providers of such a service, but Lance feels that the way we do it sets us apart.
"The model isn't unique, but the level of agronomic advice is", he says. “Our customers take comfort from seeing our guys out in their fields regularly walking the crops. However, before we get to that stage we take the time upfront to create a robust plan that incorporates everything from feed budgets and environmental regulations to crop rotations and stock numbers.”
One piece of software that enables this efficiently for us Agworld, a cloud-based program that you can read more about here. Using it with our farmers means both parties are able to track a host of essential data in realtime; because while we work best when we take full responsibility for crop yields, being able to show the numbers that back up our results only adds another level of peace of mind for farmers.
To learn more about how we can manage part, or all of your crop management needs, feel free to get in touch. Our agronomists are based throughout the lower South Island and are more than happy to chat about how we can help make a difference to your operation.