AU: Queensland strawberry learn about latest techbology

Strawberry growers across Queensland have learned about a new a full-lifecycle horticulture farm management system, at an industry gathering on the Sunshine Coast. 

Guest speaker Richard Ward, from Tehnika, gave growers an insight to his company's product Apunga, which is a cloud-based program that enables growers to drive efficiencies across their business. It aims to streamline every aspect of farm planning and day-to-day management from land preparation through to planting, fertilising, spraying, weeding and harvest. 

“We are continually looking at opportunities to help growers reduce production costs," Queensland Strawberries Industry Development Officer, Jen Rowling said. "Workshops such as the one being held today are a great way for growers to stay up to date on new technology which may benefit the long-term future of their business.” 

Ms Rowling says it was an earlier winter season for the strawberries in the state, which runs counter-seasonal to southern production areas. 

“Demand for strawberries throughout the winter production season was high, but production volumes peaked early this year, affecting price earlier than usual,” she said. “This can be attributed to a number of reasons, including the introduction of Red Rhapsody (Queensland bred variety) to the market in greater numbers. Red Rhapsody has performed exceptionally well, producing good yields of high quality fruit consistently throughout the season." 

Queensland Strawberries is looking at ways to deal with the amount of the fruit hitting the market, to ensure a more consistent price. 

“Because of the high volumes of fruit being produced over the winter season, we are looking further into potential export markets to try to reduce some of the strain on the domestic market, plus investigating opportunities to use second grade and waste fruit," Ms Rowling said. 

About 20 growers attended the free Strawberry Growers Gathering on Wednesday afternoon, at Ashbern Farms in Beerwah, hosted by Growcom and Queensland Strawberries. 

Jade King of Green Valley Agriculture also explained to attendees the benefits of this technology, facilitating a discussion with growers about where and how they can begin to use LiDAR, NDVI and EM mapping as management tools on their own farms. She showed practical examples and spoke about free and easy platforms like Google Earth Pro. 

While this event was aimed at the Strawberry industry, Growcom is looking to engage with other commodities in the Pumicestone Catchment, as well as the Lockyer Valley and Fassifern Valley.