Dried grape news

Innovation key for future

The Dried Fruits Australia board has established a Grower Innovation Group to collaborate on innovation in dried grape production.

The board sub-committee was formed at the July board meeting with the aim of tackling grower challenges. Board deputy chair and Grower Innovation Group member Warren Lloyd said the group had narrowed its focus for the coming year. “What’s become apparent is that there’s a desperate need for new harvesters to be built specifically for swing arm trellis,” Warren said. “We’re trying to come up with constructive solutions to this problem.” The group will have professional drawings created of what they regard as a best practice machine. “Ideally our aim is to see a new harvester constructed and used for the 2023 harvest, which is a pretty tall order, but that’s the goal,” Warren said. Another challenge is the capacity of existing wetting machines to adequately wet large crops. “When these were designed, a big crop would have been three tonne to the acre (7.41 tonnes to the hectare), whereas you’ve got people now who are averaging five tonne to the acre (12.35 tonnes to the hectare) and finding it difficult to get an adequate wetting job done,” Warren explained. The Grower Innovation Group welcomes more members from the dried grape growing community. “There’s a willingness to contribute and if you’ve got multiple people in a room, you can come up with more options. It’s a great starting point” he said. The Grower Innovation Group was established as the board prepares to sign off on the DFA Strategic Plan 2022-2027. The board met in May to review the plan and update for the next five years. With a range of background information, including the new Hort Innovation Dried Grape Strategic Investment Plan 2022-2026, and with research and development priorities from the planning day held in January 2021, the board focussed on critical issues to the industry, such as supply, production systems, investment and market engagement. Leonie Burrows facilitated the session as the board explored key challenges and opportunities for the industry. Research, development and extension, and communication of R&D information to growers remains a strong focus, along with production efficiencies and industry sustainability. The vision is for “a profitable and sustainable industry delivering innovative growth and quality dried grapes” with three major goal areas encompassing industry, market development and the organisation itself. The DFA Strategic Plan 2022-2027 will receive sign off at the board’s August meeting. People interested in joining the Grower Innovation Group can contact Warren at manager@18ninety.net or by phone on 0417 851 004. v

DIGITAL SPRAY DIARY READY FOR THE SEASON

Dried Fruits Australia’s chemical spray diary is now digital. Contracted dried grape growers would now have received their login details for the Grapeweb platform, which houses the new spray diary. Industry field officer Stuart Putland said Grapeweb had significant experience in tailoring a program suitable for the wine grape industry, which was able to be adapted for dried grape growing. “They’ve run this system for a long time,” he explained. “If we have any growers who have experience with wine grapes, it’ll be familiar to them.” Growers have been encouraged to simply log on and have a go. “It’s easy to use and there are how-to videos available on the site to show how everything works,” Stuart said. “Growers need to enter details about their individual patches – row spacing, planting dates and varieties. If people are unsure about their hectares, SunRISE Mapping might be able to help,” Stuart said. The platform includes inputs for chemical user permits and sprayer calibrations, and all chemical information links to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, where product labels and safety data sheets can be found. Grapeweb includes the DFA-approved list of chemicals and gives simple alerts if growers have chosen a spray that doesn’t match the application. “It’ll allow you to search for chemicals to treat for a particular pest or disease, and it’s got all the withholding periods specific to dried grapes,” Stuart said.

Hard copy spray diaries are available free for members ($15 for non-members) from the DFA office. The Grapeweb system will work on iPad, computers and phones. Processor field officers are trained in the system to support growers, while Grapeweb can provide technical support. The project was funded by the Australian Government.

Mapping our industry

SunRISE Mapping and Research is offering free crop plans to dried grape growers.

Crop plans are a useful property record particularly for planning, quality assurance purposes and industry contracts. The free crop plan offer aims to facilitate data sharing between SunRISE and processors for improved industry planning and management. All individual property data– including plantings and production data – will be treated in the strictest of confidence, and only aggregated, de-identified data will be released.

SunRISE Mapping and Research program manager Sue Argus said SunRISE had mapped dried vine fruit across Sunraysia and the Riverland for 25 years. “The process involves preparation of crop plans for growers and preparation of industry-wide information on the production base for Dried Fruits Australia,” she said. “SunRISE aims to maintain the accuracy of data on dried vine fruit plantings and seeks input from growers to verify and update their plantings data, in particular to capture the uptake of new varieties and clarify transition between wine, dried and table grapes.” Sue said both SunRISE and processors maintained separate databases for dried vine fruit growers. “The ability to share data requires the permission of growers and this would greatly enhance efficiencies in data management and quality of industry information,” she said.

The crop plans have a background of aerial imagery flown from January to February 2021. The imagery is scale accurate so hectares and/or acres are calculated from the mapping. The maps will be supplied as one hard copy print, A4 paper size, and a digital PDF version.

The offer is available until 30 June 2023. v For your free crop map or more information, contact Julie at SunRISE Mapping and Research by calling (03) 5021 3156 or email mapping@sunrisemapping.org.au

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