The Owen Ag Bureau recently returned from a three-day study tour of the Mallee. Basing ourselves in Loxton, we ventured out to various farms and agricultural businesses.
On the sandy soils of the Pinnaroo districts is an oasis of potato farms watered by massive centre pivots using water allocations from the underground aquifer. This traditionally dryland agricultural district has been transformed by its access to underground water.
The sandy soil is also ideally suited to the production of potatoes. The farm we visited was Longtrail Farms, owned by the Dabinett family, where, along with dryland farming, they run a few highly productive centre pivots.
The majority of their potato production is for the Smiths Crisps market, while some varieties are destined for the fresh market and processed locally by the Pye group at Parilla. They also irrigate lucerne for stock feed.
Neighbouring property, Parilla Premium Potatoes, was established in 1990 by Mark Pye initially to supply potatoes to the French fries market in Australia. In 2009 the Pye Group acquired 100 per cent ownership of Zerella Fresh – a South Australian family business established in 1936.
The Pye Group are growers, packers and national distributors of potatoes, carrots, and brown and red onions. They also engage in cereal cropping and livestock enterprises.
Through their farms, packing facilities and transport they are a national supplier to supermarket chains, and their brand ‘spud lite’ is nationally recognised.
To get an idea of the scale of this family business – whose property encompasses 15,000 hectares of land, including 10,000 hectares of cereal production – here are a few annual production stats:
– 90,000 tonnes of potatoes for the fresh market
– 40,000 tonnes of processing potatoes
– 50,000 tonnes carrots
– 50,000 tonnes of onions
– 7000 ewes
– 10,000 lambs
– 250 cattle
All of this is done with the help of 400 full-time employees.
