9 8 LEAVING life and business and uprooting the family in another country to head to Australia, even when it’s for good reason, is a big move for anyone, but South African Tielmanr Nieuwoudt and family have quickly established themselves and Tielman already has found new passions, like growing avocadoes. The Nieuwoudts operated a commercial fishing business on the east coast of South Africa near Port Elizabeth, however concerns over elevated levels of criminal activity and unethical practices prompted the move to Australia to help provide a better future for their children. Queensland conditions were viewed as quite similar to South Africa and the family set the pathway for the move by acquiring a seafood company at Burnett Heads in 2019. Tielman and his brother, Sampie run the wholesale seafood business, which includes several Tielman has been familiar with similar cattle breeds and working herds from a young age, however growing avocadoes is something entirely new. He described it as a new challenge requiring a lot to learn and he found an excellent ally in local Lindsay Rural Agronomist Marija Tromp, who has proved to be the perfect guide. “If it wasn’t for Marija, I would have given up, but we have since had a wonderful fruitset and everything is looking beautiful,”Tielman said. He said the equal balance of Hass and Shepherd avocadoes were planted by the previous property owner, who had looked after them well with fertiliser applications every one to two months. However, Marija, in consultation with specialty fertiliser supplier, Haifa Australia, designed a regular fertigation program that changed weekly as well as monthly, and Tielman said the crop results had been fantastic. “We brought-in 72 bee hives as well for the pollination and the trees continued to flower and the fruitset was brilliant,” Tielman said. He said he also engaged an irrigation specialist and upgraded the property’s pump and sprinkler irrigation infrastructure with an improved and easier-to-manage system. The regular fertigation program included Haifa’s popular Poly-Feed complete nutrition water soluble fertiliser, plus its greenhouse grade Multi-K potassium nitrate and Haifa Cal calcium nitrate products. Magnesium nitrate and a root stimulant also were added into the fertigation solution and there were no problems with application through the sprinkler system. “The fertiliser program was following crop stages with specially-targeted root stimulants for the spring and autumn flushes,” said Marija, who also assisted Tielman with his orchard spraying program against insects and disease. Tielman said Marija started with soil samples and suggested amendments including gypsum application, and, together with the regular fertigation program, the response throughout the orchard was profound. “Absolutely we saw the change in the trees and we have been very fortunate to get a great crop in just their third year. Others tell me that normally comes in year four or five.” Marija said Tielman surprisingly tripled the avocado yield at the property in just a year. “At one stage during picking he said he wasn’t snowed-under, he was avo’dunder,” she laughed. “Tielman worked closely with me to follow the nutrition and irrigation program and the yield quickly doubled and then tripled. Karl Sandow, Account Manager and Irrigation Specialist with Lindsay Rural at Bundaberg in Queensland, Haifa Australia Northern Sales Agronomist Malcolm Otto and local grower Tielman Nieuwoudt pictured discussing orchard nutrition and sampling some of the avocadoes at the Nieuwoudt’s Welcome Creek property. Tielman pictured adding another bag of Haifa’s popular Poly-Feed water soluble fertiliser for the regular fertigation program followed at the family’s property. “With a regular fertigation program, we saw the change in the trees and we have been very fortunate to get a great crop in just their third year. Others tell me that normally comes in year four or five.” Queensland grower Tielman Nieuwoudt, near Bundaberg commercial vessels catching the region’s popular spanner crabs along the coastline. Tielman has two young children with his wife, Melany, and two older sons from a previous relationship, while Sampie is a proud father to four daughters.. Tielman said a sister-in-law also had arrived in Queensland, right on time for the avocado packing season, as well as a brother-in-law who also was working in the local produce industry. After COVID, Tielman and his family arrived in Queensland in April 2022 and he acquired a small property at the aptly named location of Welcome Creek, near Bundaberg, that was growing young avocado trees. He has since purchased another property nearby that he is transitioning from sugarcane to cattle and where he has commenced a small Droughtmaster stud, ‘Esperant’, which has its first calves on the ground. “To aim for larger, premium fruit, we also targeted stimulants to hold the fruit, and its size went 20, 22 and 24 (millimetres). There were no 16 and 18 (mm). The rejects also halved compared with last year and Tielman still managed to sell it as an ‘odd bunch’. It was all large and heavy fruit,” Marija said. Surf, turf and avos sets up winning Aussie move Click for further info Multi-K Poly-Feed Haifa Cal
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