Peter Darley

Peter Darley is an orchardist who lives in Nashdale. He is also a keen lobbyist for the apple and pear industry and is chairman of NSW Farmers' Horticultural Committee and chairman of NSW Apple and Pear Growers.

"Water is productivity to us. When I was growing up we didn't need much water to grow quality fruit. Now it's very difficult to grow apples without water. It's a good part of your business plan that you must have water to grow quality fruit."

Water is productivity to us. When I was growing up we didn't need much water to grow quality fruit. Now it's very difficult to grow apples without water. It's a good part of your business plan that you must have water to grow quality fruit.

We also can't operate without chemicals in our industry so we need water. We spray continuously through from green tip until three weeks prior to harvest. We spray fungicides for apple scab and also for coddling moth but there are a lot of environmental controls so those sprays are very limited.

We have predators in the orchards to eat the red and European mites. We test for any residue chemicals on the fruit. A Federal Government body does random testing of chemicals in the wholesale market and 98.9 per cent of fruit and vegetables are chemically free of residues. That’s as well as our own minimum residue level testing.

A lot of our dam water comes from Mount Canobolas. In the last three years we’ve nearly exhausted our water supply but every year they’ve come full again because of that marvellous catchment area.

For irrigation we have overhead and under-tree spray irrigation – a dual system. The overhead is only used for frost control.