34 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Morrifield Developments T T Russell Fredric Tunnel houses popular at field days All crop protection tunnel houses have a front door and include a tanalised 100x 50mm timber base. Morrifield Developments had a bumper crop of enquiries at this year’s Southern Field Days, on the back of winning a significant small business award last September. Co-owner Leanne Morris says while cost of living increases has had some effect on sales, demand for its products has remained largely consistent during the past year. “We had an exceptional field days; we had such a lot of people on site. We also put up our commercial greenhouse.” This commercial unit has not been available for the past few years, but is due for release to the market again this July. These are 4.2 metres wide, about 3.0 metres high and will come in lengths of 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 metres. “We had a lot of interest at the field days, and we put out an expressions of interest to see who would be keen. We’ve got quite a few of those to follow up. A lot of people are really serious about growing or want to do market gardens.” Another product Morrifield Developments offers outside of its conventional tunnel houses is crop protection units. These keep birds, white butterfly and other pests off crops, but allows rainwater through and exposure to the elements, with the Ultra Pro model providing 30% windbreak protection. All crop protection tunnel houses have a front door and include a tanalised 100x 50mm timber base, as well as having the option of adding a rear door. “They have become quite popular, especially in the warmer regions. These are fantastic for summer growing, they stop the white butterfly, you can put all your brassicas in there. We have a lot of people growing in these now.” “The white butterfly in the last few seasons has been extremely bad, so it’s a really good option to be able to grow your vegetables without them getting decimated.” Leanne has seen a trend towards a “whole new generation” of younger people growing their own produce and believes this could be the result of social media and a general awareness of the benefits of home grown goodness. “We’ve got quite a big Facebook following.” Winning the Small Business of the Year category in the 2023 Southern Green Hydrogen Southland Business Excellence Awards last September is testament to Morrifield’s hard working staff, she says. In total, the awards comprised 14 categories with some significant businesses and organisations being recognised. Leanne estimates Morrifield Greenhouses has manufactured close to 20,000 tunnel houses since 1980. Customers have commented on their ease of assembly; even the greenhouse film is cut to size. The most popular sizes are the four and five metre long models which are 2350mm wide. Growing in a tunnel house is less work than a garden and has the advantage of not being weather dependent which makes working in them it a more pleasant pastime, while there is a longer shoulder growth season and plants are less frost prone. Morrifield Developments tunnel houses can be bought with MTF finance. In some cases this can make good economic sense due to the savings that can be made on the grocery budget, especially due the high cost of produce outside of the main growing season, Leanne says. Cosio Industries are proud to supply Morri elds greenhouses with quality Polygro greenhouse lm WINTON Phone 0800 484 622 • Email: sales@southbuild.co.nz Proudly Supporting Morrifield Developments altus.co.nz/industrial-aluminium sales@altus.co.nz 0800 77 77 44 7 Mosgiel Branch (Head O ice) | 03 489 5760 Tauranga Branch | 027 808 2858 Auckland Branch | 09 820 3903 Christchurch Branch | 03 344 0264 Your One stop shop nationally offering: • Extrusions, both ex stock & indent • Sheet, plate & tread-plate • Fabrication including CNC router cutting, CNC break press along with Mig & Tig welding • CNC large capacity rollers PAYNES ALUMINIUM LTD SUPPLIES AND SUPPORTS MORRIFIELD DEVELOPMENTS
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