Sprouting new business

NEARLY 900 acres in Middle Tarwin is being developed into a vegetable farm and processing facility by family company, Schreurs and Sons.
The third generation, 52 year old company grows celery, leeks, baby spinach and rocket.
Originating in Clyde near Cranbourne, three cousins Chris, Adam and Ben Schreurs took over the business from retiring family three years ago.
Adam had been working in the business for 25 years and together with his cousins has worked to grow the company.
Currently operating on around 700 acres in Clyde, the pressure of housing development has meant the land is now surrounded by residential lots.
Adam said the land will be developed into housing over the next few years.
“We purchased 160 acres in Middle Tarwin in July, 2013. We then purchased 722 acres next door in February,” he said.
“That will give us plenty of room for expansion into the future.”
In the ground now are 45 acres of celery, and 15 acres each of baby spinach and rocket, with a further 85 acres to be planted by the end of February.
“We would then look to increase in size by 100 acres per year beyond that,” Adam said.
Around nine tonnes of baby spinach has recently been harvested from the property, with more ready to be picked this week.
Once picked, the produce is transported to the existing Clyde facility to be packaged.
Adam said they don’t expect to be processing or packaging at the Middle Tarwin farm for at least the next four years.
“Within the next two years, we hope to start construction of a packaging and processing facility, however it will take a few years to complete,” he said.
In the long term, it is expected the Middle Tarwin property will become the primary facility for Schreurs and Sons.
The company currently employs around 150 people, which Adam expects the Middle Tarwin property to exceed over the next 10 years.
The property is close to the Tarwin River and the company had to purchase pre-existing irrigation licences to access water from the river.
“We bought the water from licence holders before we bought the property. We were looking at climate and water availability first and foremost,” Adam said.
They have also built a 180 million litre, 10 acre dam, which is now full.
Adam anticipates the dam will provide water for the 160 acre farm over the drier months, so they don’t have to draw on the river.
“We currently have 50 acres of irrigation and have completed some sub surface drainage as well,” he said.
“We will continue to build water storages as the property expands. We want to be drought proof so we don’t have to worry about water, like we did this year.
“We planned to start planting in February, but had to hold off until April due to a lack of water.”
Schreurs and Sons use integrated pest management techniques to minimise use of pesticides on their vegetables.
Adam said they employ an entomologist to inspect crops weekly to determine the quantities of good and bad bugs present.
“If the beneficial insects outweigh the bad, we will generally let it go. It is not often we have to spray and if we do, it is targeted,” he said.

Green thumb: Adam Schreurs from Schreurs and Sons with some of the celery planted at the company’s new Middle Tarwin property.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Jul 12 2016. Filed under Rural News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry