August 19, 2024 • 5 mins
Mike Tayler joins Craig Cumming to chat growing carrots for juicing in a sometimes unreliable arable market.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Seventy minutes past eight o'clock. I'm really looking forward to
this next chat because not every farmer can say their
produce ends up in a vending machine in Japan. But
the Taylor brothers can. They grow juicing carrots and Winchester
and South Canterbury. And I'm joined now by the carrot
farmer Mike Taylor.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, Mike, Good morning, Craig. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, I'm awesome. I'm really looking forward to chatting about
this one because Timmorrow is my home patch. But I'm
looking at a photo of you and a field of
looks like it goes continuously just about to the Alps,
and a carrot with carrot tops around you. Were you
holding what looks like one of the biggest carrots I've
ever seen. Just tell us a little bit about your
operation and you know carrots that you grow, and also
the operation you're going there in mo Washteke.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, we're arable farmers here just north of Tomorrow. Then
you'll know this herea quite well. Yeah, we're farming around
a thousand hectares of all cropping one hundred percent cropping
with no livestock and about sixteen or seventeen years ago.
We were approached by juice products in New Zealand to
grow juice and carrots, and that just gave us another
(01:00):
crop in our rotation and sort of spreads their business
risk a bit.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, how I mean when you look at there, how
much of it's on the carrot side of things.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We grow about five thousand tons of carrots, So as
far as the area goes, it's not a big area
as far as our farm, but income wise it's becoming
a more important part of their farming business for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And these carrots end up as carrots juice. Is there
a difference and skews my naivety, But I like to
ask the question it was stupid between a juice and
a carrot that ends up as carrot juice and just
your normal household carrot that I put in my stair fry.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, they're probably is craig the juice and carrots for
us about yield, So we try and grow as big
as they're a lot bigger than you'd put in your
stir fry. And they like high bricks or sugars for
the sweetness. So most of our carrot juice goes into Japan.
The bulk of it they do send some into Australia
(01:58):
a little bit to Australia, Asia in North America. But
the Japanese, the Japanese consumers are really health focused and
so they drink carrot juice in their boxes and vending
machines and tokyo instead of maybe coke or lemonade or
things that we find in our vending machines.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, the vening machines over there, just about one everywhere.
So how do you I mean, obviously the more you produce,
the better you know, when it comes to giving us supply,
how do you manage you know, go able to give
yourself a better yield? How do you manage being able
to get more than one stock a year where it
comes to out of the ground.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, well, we plant them just briefly. We plant them
probably in the spring, so we are only sort of
three weeks a month from planting now, and then we
start harvesting them post New Year, so early into sort
of February, and then we harvest them through the winter
into probably finishing in August or even sometimes in September.
(02:56):
So it's just got to Grammary. We've got the juice
products in New Zealand's got agronomus and yeah, learning our
yields has certainly increased over the sixteen years have been
growing them. But again it's just good for a rotation.
We rotate our crops around and that makes us less
reliant on one family of chemicals. It spreads had business risk.
(03:18):
It's a better utilization of a machinery. We also supply
bluebird foods in Auckland with potatoes and so all that
potato equipment we can use for carrots. So again expensive
machinery that you use and gets these lives better.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Special soil in Winchester or was.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It just yeah, it's the best New Zealand Craig Probably, No,
We're lucky. We've got free draining, good soils here. We've
got good irrigation and a pretty temperate climate. So when
they were looking to where to build their new factory,
they saw South Canterbury as a pretty sustainable and good
(03:55):
region with a lot of natural advantages. Yeah, so the
Japanese come over from Tokyo and visit the farm and
they very impressed. They look up at the southern Alps
with snow on and they see the clean rivers and
it's a pretty pretty good environment for feastable growing.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, some nice views of the Southern Alps at the moment.
Just quickly before you go. Also, when it comes to
New Zealand's investment or uptake of characters, we wouldn't be
that high, would we.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
No, we're probably not. We're a massive grower of carrot seed.
I think we're the biggest in the world of supplying
carrot seed. But as far as juicing carrots go, yeah,
I think they produced quite a lot of the states
in other parts of the world. But they do like
our quality and our consistency of supply that they really
(04:45):
appreciate that. But we we're probably not the cheapest carrot supplier,
but we do have good quality and good consistency of supply,
which they value.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It's great. It's great to see, you know, looking at
successful business as Congratulations and keep the good work going.
And thanks very much for joining us this morning.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No problem. Thanks, Tony Craig.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
There we go. Mike Teller. Yeah, I'd say I'm not
going to them with this awesome character. It's massive and
then just a field full of it. But he always
said all good things come out of Timaru and the
Timaru region.
Seventy minutes past eight o'clock. I'm really looking forward to
this next chat because not every farmer can say their
produce ends up in a vending machine in Japan. But
the Taylor brothers can. They grow juicing carrots and Winchester
and South Canterbury. And I'm joined now by the carrot
farmer Mike Taylor.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, Mike, Good morning, Craig. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, I'm awesome. I'm really looking forward to chatting about
this one because Timmorrow is my home patch. But I'm
looking at a photo of you and a field of
looks like it goes continuously just about to the Alps,
and a carrot with carrot tops around you. Were you
holding what looks like one of the biggest carrots I've
ever seen. Just tell us a little bit about your
operation and you know carrots that you grow, and also
the operation you're going there in mo Washteke.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, we're arable farmers here just north of Tomorrow. Then
you'll know this herea quite well. Yeah, we're farming around
a thousand hectares of all cropping one hundred percent cropping
with no livestock and about sixteen or seventeen years ago.
We were approached by juice products in New Zealand to
grow juice and carrots, and that just gave us another
(01:00):
crop in our rotation and sort of spreads their business
risk a bit.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, how I mean when you look at there, how
much of it's on the carrot side of things.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We grow about five thousand tons of carrots, So as
far as the area goes, it's not a big area
as far as our farm, but income wise it's becoming
a more important part of their farming business for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And these carrots end up as carrots juice. Is there
a difference and skews my naivety, But I like to
ask the question it was stupid between a juice and
a carrot that ends up as carrot juice and just
your normal household carrot that I put in my stair fry.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, they're probably is craig the juice and carrots for
us about yield, So we try and grow as big
as they're a lot bigger than you'd put in your
stir fry. And they like high bricks or sugars for
the sweetness. So most of our carrot juice goes into Japan.
The bulk of it they do send some into Australia
(01:58):
a little bit to Australia, Asia in North America. But
the Japanese, the Japanese consumers are really health focused and
so they drink carrot juice in their boxes and vending
machines and tokyo instead of maybe coke or lemonade or
things that we find in our vending machines.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, the vening machines over there, just about one everywhere.
So how do you I mean, obviously the more you produce,
the better you know, when it comes to giving us supply,
how do you manage you know, go able to give
yourself a better yield? How do you manage being able
to get more than one stock a year where it
comes to out of the ground.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, well, we plant them just briefly. We plant them
probably in the spring, so we are only sort of
three weeks a month from planting now, and then we
start harvesting them post New Year, so early into sort
of February, and then we harvest them through the winter
into probably finishing in August or even sometimes in September.
(02:56):
So it's just got to Grammary. We've got the juice
products in New Zealand's got agronomus and yeah, learning our
yields has certainly increased over the sixteen years have been
growing them. But again it's just good for a rotation.
We rotate our crops around and that makes us less
reliant on one family of chemicals. It spreads had business risk.
(03:18):
It's a better utilization of a machinery. We also supply
bluebird foods in Auckland with potatoes and so all that
potato equipment we can use for carrots. So again expensive
machinery that you use and gets these lives better.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Special soil in Winchester or was.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It just yeah, it's the best New Zealand Craig Probably, No,
We're lucky. We've got free draining, good soils here. We've
got good irrigation and a pretty temperate climate. So when
they were looking to where to build their new factory,
they saw South Canterbury as a pretty sustainable and good
(03:55):
region with a lot of natural advantages. Yeah, so the
Japanese come over from Tokyo and visit the farm and
they very impressed. They look up at the southern Alps
with snow on and they see the clean rivers and
it's a pretty pretty good environment for feastable growing.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, some nice views of the Southern Alps at the moment.
Just quickly before you go. Also, when it comes to
New Zealand's investment or uptake of characters, we wouldn't be
that high, would we.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
No, we're probably not. We're a massive grower of carrot seed.
I think we're the biggest in the world of supplying
carrot seed. But as far as juicing carrots go, yeah,
I think they produced quite a lot of the states
in other parts of the world. But they do like
our quality and our consistency of supply that they really
(04:45):
appreciate that. But we we're probably not the cheapest carrot supplier,
but we do have good quality and good consistency of supply,
which they value.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It's great. It's great to see, you know, looking at
successful business as Congratulations and keep the good work going.
And thanks very much for joining us this morning.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No problem. Thanks, Tony Craig.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
There we go. Mike Teller. Yeah, I'd say I'm not
going to them with this awesome character. It's massive and
then just a field full of it. But he always
said all good things come out of Timaru and the
Timaru region.
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