| 57 HORTICULTURE Ngai Tukairangi Trust Napier Port Hawke’s Bay After leaving school, Liam naturally gravitated to studying horticulture at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in Napier. We spent last winter planting 20,000 kiwifruit seedlings and have employed a young vine manager to solely focus on looking after those young plants.” A fourth-generation orchardist, Liam has been an arborist his whole life. One of his earliest memories is of being dropped off with his siblings at an orchard to pick apples to fill a bin. “My dad, Robert Sykes, is the most passionate, enthusiastic person in the industry in my eyes. He taught me early on that you earn your place in the world.” After leaving school, Liam naturally gravitated to studying horticulture at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in Napier, completing Level 1 to Advanced Level 4. “Really, though, my main training has been in the orchard.” Liam has been with Ngāi Tukairangi since April 2022. He currently oversees three separate apple orchards (54 hectares in total) and led the Trust’s largest new development to date, their Tukituki Orchard. “We’ve been adopting new technology and working with concrete structures imported from Italy. It’s all about growing sustainably for the long term. We’re using posts that can withstand 55 tonnes of hail per hectare with hail netting on top. The nets can also keep biosecurity threats out, such as brown marmorated stink bugs should they ever get into the country.” Liam also manages 60 hectares of gold kiwifruit, a third of which is organic with the other two-thirds undergoing conversion to organic. Having always wanted to learn multi-crop skills, Liam has relished the opportunity to add kiwifruit to his horticulture skillset. “The Trust has backed me 110%. The support they have given me is pretty special. They invest in their staff and upskilling of staff and are very focussed on building resilience into their orchard operations.” We are proud to support Ngai Tukairangi Trust Power Farming Hawkes Bay | 06 879 9998 Trusted Kiwifruit pollination specialists since 1972. Josh027 352 4904 www.mossops.co.nz
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