| 3 HORTICULTURE » 3 Kings Cherries A business focused on its people The business employs four to five permanent rising to 100 in peak season. Karen Phelps 3 Kings Cherries’ business is focused around people, which saw it win the Bayleys People in Primary Sector Award for the Otago region at the 2024 Ballance Farm Environment Awards. “The business is set up to make life more enjoyable for staff. We would like people to want come back and work for us again rather than people having to work for us for some reason. You get more out of people if you treat them well so it’s a win-win,” says 3 Kings Cherries shareholder Tim Paulin. The business employs four to five permanent rising to 100 in peak season. To attract the best staff initiatives have included providing high–quality facilities and accommodation, and ensuring the orchard layout makes picking easier and more enjoyable. Tim says health and safety are integrated into daily management of the orchard through an app that works via a facial scanner. The scanner was installed during Covid and still helps the orchard to monitor staff health keeping its people safe and ensuring people can have the time off to recover if ill. “All the inductions are also scannable on site so we can always know where people are working on site and have people log any hazards they might identify. We also employ a health and safety person so staff can have someone neutral to talk to if they are concerned about anything in this area.” Tim is a third-generation orchardist whose family has been growing fruit in Central Otago for more than 100 years. The main 47ha block of 3 Kings Cherries was purchased in 2018. When the family took it over the land had thyme, broom, and gorse growing on it. Because the ground didn’t have much carbon storage or organic matter, instead of spraying everything out a light discing and aerating was completed over the property. When trees were planted the organic matter already there was simply pushed under the trees and clovers planted to get the soils working again. A fertiliser programme through PGG Wrightson and Ballance has helped add nutrition back into the soil and moisture temperature probes have also assisted the process. Tim says he also relies on the “boot-o-metre”: “Me kicking the ground to make sure it’s looking good,” he says with a laugh. “So it’s old school plus new technology. Because we have put limited amount of chemical into the ground we have worms under trees and everything is going good, better than I expected, with a lot of vegetative growth on the trees. Last year we picked 120 tonnes of fruit.” Monitoring and measuring tools are automated and technology is also helping to significantly reduce orchard labour. For example robots are used to scare birds and Tim is also looking at drones for crop spraying and more mechanical systems for tree management going forward. This complements new fit-for-purpose infrastructure was built in 2021 spanning 2000sqm and includes a state-of-the-art packhouse, inwards and outward coolstores, offices and staff accommodation. The facility can process four tonnes of cherries per hour of cherries and fruit is tracked digitally from the picker and block to the packhouse. “We were originally thinking of outsourcing this but there’s not enough packhouses and you start to Proudly supporting 3 Kings Cherries Phone 027 351 6494 | Cromwell info@COFH.co.nz | www.southlandforklifthire.co.nz · GENERAL ENGINEERING · STRUCTURAL STEEL · HEAVY VEHICLE ENGINEERING Proud to support 3 Kings Cherries · MOBILEWELDING · CERTIFICATION · TRAILERS Mt Iron Engineering offer a range of engineering and fabrication services by trained certifiedwelders, including: 03 443 1315 021 485 758 Proudly supporting 3 Kings Cherries Mobile. 027 5420 329 Email. specialisedhr@gmail.com admin@samuelcontracting.co.nz • Phone: 022 097 0507 Proudly supporting 3 KINGS CHERRIES lose control of your product,” says Tim. “Now we can pack for other people as well – currently around 200 tonnes of fruit from outside the orchard.” Tim says 3 Kings Cherries is passionate about sustainability and is undertaking native plantings and has block where only organic chemicals are used to see if the business can move more towards using organic chemicals. “At 3 Kings Cherries we’re setting the place up to be here forever.”
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