In the face of rising competition from imported processed vegetables, a recently completed project has identified and assessed new innovations for increasing yields or reducing input costs for processing vegetable crops in Australia.

The project, which was funded by Hort Innovation, has investigated issues affecting yields for broccoli, carrots, green beans, cauliflower and sweet corn, with the goal of presenting its research findings to growers and giving them recommendations on how to improve production practices.

In its research, the project team from the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) at the University of Tasmania looked at what leading processing vegetable growers are doing to see how they’ve made their way to the head of the pack.

This included conducting interviews with Simplot growers who have already met or exceeded the company’s yield targets for 2020, as well as a research review of best practice and recent innovations for the project’s target crops.

The team has now published a collection of fact sheets to help growers manage their production practices and improve their yields:

• Maximising uniformity at harvest maturity in processing broccoli – Reducing crop variability and decreasing the number of cuts needed during harvest
• Optimising crop establishment in processing carrots – Ensuring uniformity in carrot crops to maximise yield
• Irrigation management in sweet corn – A refresher on irrigation scheduling outlining how new tools can help manage irrigation
• Winter crane fly (Trichocera annulata) – Managing winter crane fly, including in cauliflower crops

You can also see all resources produced for the vegetable industry by the TIA on its website.

If you want to know more about the now-completed project, we interviewed TIA Industry Development Manager and Project Lead Sue Hinton for the September/October 2017 edition of Vegetables Australia magazine (you can find the story on page 8 of the PDF).

Some of this information first appeared in Hort Innovation’s quarterly Hortlink publication, available in full online. Stay in the loop by becoming a member of Hort Innovation – paying a levy doesn’t automatically make you a member, but signing up is free and easy on the Hort Innovation website.

This post appeared in the AUSVEG Weekly Update published 7 August 2018. Subscribe to the Update using our online form to receive the latest industry news in your inbox every week!