Growers Services

Our grower services team helps our established, new and potential growers with a vast amount of macadamia knowledge and experience. We offer general and specialised advice in most areas of macadamia production to help growers get the most from their orchard.

General Agronomic Advice

Soil management, composting, pruning, limb removal and tree height reduction, irrigation and fertiliser requirements.

New Orchard Establishment

Advice on ground preparation, the best tree varieties for your area, tree and row spacings and planting designs with a focus on maximising the benefits from cross pollination.

Specialised Pollination Advice

Grower workshops on native and honeybee management and pollination principles. Hive stocking rates, safety and placement within the orchard.

Specialised Pest Management Advice

We hold grower workshops in pest identification and control options and teach the concepts of IPM (Integrated Pest Management). We conduct field visits on request and offer a pest referral service for those growers requiring help with pest ID in the field. We offer up to date advice on the chemical, biological and cultural control methods of the pests in your orchard.

Macadamia Husking And Sorting

Nutworks offers a dehusking and sorting service to our growers supplying our Bundaberg Consolidation facility at Lover’s Walk. We can assist with transport logistics to this facility from the field and also from this facility to our Yandina and Cooroy processing factories.

Meet Our Grower Services Team

Chris Fuller - Grower Liaison (Sunshine Coast, Gympie, Glass House Mountains)

Chris has been with Nutworks for over five years now and has been a consultant to the macadamia industry for nearly 30 years. He graduated from the University of Queensland’s Gatton campus where he studied Horticulture and Plant Protection and specialises in IPM (Integrated Pest Management) of macadamia pests, the concept of using biological and cultural methods of pest control in conjunction with chemical control when minimising insect damage to macadamia production. He has helped Nutworks’ growers to consistently have lower insect damage reported (in their deliveries to the factory) than the Industry’s Benchmarking average. Chris’s experience in the field has lead to him providing many of the images in the NSW DPI’s annual Macadamia Plant Protection Guide.

Chris also specialises in the use of Australian Native Stingless bees as alternative pollinators for the macadamia industry and manages a native bee program for Nutworks.

Gavin Lerch - Grower Liaison (Bundaberg Region)

Gavin is a third generation farmer in the Bundaberg region with his family growing sugar cane on the family farm for over 65 years. Gavin left school to manage his family property and gained further skills through his employment at the Bundaberg Research Station and Bundaberg Sugar Limited as a Grower Services Officer. In 2018 (when Nutworks entered into the area) a position became available with Nutworks as a Grower Liaison. 2018 was also the year that he commenced planting his own macadamia orchard.

Gavin now leads the Nutworks team in Bundaberg to facilitate the collection, de-husking, sorting and grower services. Gavin enjoys communicating with the growers in this region and offering for the best possible service. He is a proud committee member of the Macadamia Conservation Trust and Bundaberg Regional Advisory Panel (AMS).

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