Solid hop harvest

Clayton Hops has gone from strength to strength in the last few years, becoming the largest hop growing operation in New Zealand and this year’s harvest is likely to be its biggest yet.

Clayton Hops is owned and operated by the three Clayton brothers: Andrew, Glen and Brian, who run four farms about an hour’s drive from Nelson. What started as Andrew setting up a hop farm 4 years ago has grown into multiple farms, with all the brothers realising the global demand for quality New Zealand grown hops and the long-term potential. Since then, three former dairy farms and one sheep and beef farm have been (or are in the process of being) converted and are producing world class hops for the craft beer market — all of which have been set up with the more targeted and efficient drip line, instead of overhead irrigation. Sales and Marketing Manager Brian Clayton says this year’s harvest is likely to be strong. He puts this down to a mixture of favourable weather, more experience and maturity of the hop gardens as a whole. “The yields this year are up considerably on last year,” Brian says. “The plants are getting older in the field and as they mature, they become more productive. “Our people on the ground are also getting better at growing hops. It’s a tricky exercise and luck can play a part. Our hearts go out to the farms that were devastated by the freak hailstorm in December last year.” Brian and his brothers are in the midst of a major expansion which will effectively double the size of their hop gardens and thereby double their production output to about 1,000 tonnes per year. “We’ve developed about 240ha of garden over the last 4 years or so and we’ve still got about 250 to 300ha to develop,” Brian says. “We’re hitting it hard because we like the product, the industry and it suits our skillsets very well.” It was all hands on deck back in March, with hops being harvested at a rate of about 5 to 8ha per day! Although they are not even half a decade in, the brothers now produce a wide range of globally sought-after hop varieties including Nelson Sauvin™, Motueka™ and Riwaka™ (which is a little trickier to grow and prized among brewers) — to name a few. New types of hops are bred and developed by New Zealand Hops,

| Andrew (left), Ben and Brian Clayton see spray free hops as providing a competitive advantage.

| Clayton Hops have become the largest hop growing operation in New Zealand.

a co-operative of Master Growers, which has an innovative breeding program with exciting new varieties in continual development. “We are very fortunate that we can produce ‘spray free’ hops as the risk of our hops being affected by pests and disease is low. We see this as a competitive advantage over hops from other countries,” Brian says.

The latest and greatest

As well as an intensive crop expansion, Clayton Hops is investing in the latest technology. “We have installed two new Dauenhauer hop picking and cleaning facilities on our farms together with flat-bed drying kilns that are heated by blowing air over hot water radiators — this ensures that our hops are free from exhaust fumes. Currently it’s around $7 million to install each facility, so it’s a pretty chunky investment,” Brian says. The Clayton brothers have big ambitions and are confident they can play a part in boosting New Zealand hop grower’s contribution, from supplying just one percent of the world’s hops currently, to contributing closer to three or four percent over the next decade or so. “Some brewers come to select the hops they want, as it’s the hops that give their craft beers a point of difference. If it wasn’t for COVID-19 there would be a lot of American clients coming over, but it’s been nice entertaining the Kiwi crowd.” As well as being Farmlands shareholders, the team is part of New Zealand Hops. “Those guys really welcomed us into the industry when we were starting out and some of the local growers have been really good to us,” Brian says. Richmond-based Farmlands Technical Advisor Alena Griffith says it’s been great watching their operation grow and to be able to assist the Clayton brothers across the seasons.

“I have really enjoyed working with the Claytons over the last 3 to 4 years and seeing the dairy block being transformed into a full-scale hop operation has been quite amazing,” Alena says. The brothers grew up on a dry stock farm on the West Coast that was later converted into dairy. “Dad helps Andrew out at hop harvest and Glen’s father in law, Hugh, comes up from Southland to help out as well. Our parents, John and Margaret, love the fact that we are still involved in agriculture,” Brian says. While COVID-19 has slowed export somewhat, the brothers are confident that market demand will pick up in the second half of 2021.