Hewson Farms: The free draining silt loam soils of the Mid-Canterbury plains was a draw card for Ross and Rochelle Hewson to move from Esk Valley, South Canterbury to purchase the home farm Penlyn at Chertsey, between Ashburton and Rakaia in 2000, six others have been added as the opportunities arose.

Hewson Farms is fully irrigated, mostly being centre pivots and laterals which allows us to operate a large-scale vegetable and arable crop operation.

A sustainable rotation is focused around 25% of our land in Potatoes and Onions each year, with the remainder in arable crops wheat, ryegrass, and hybrid vegetables seed crops. We buy in 8-10 thousand store lambs each summer to finish as winter contracts to local processors.

All our potatoes are contracted to a local potato processor, 100km south of our location. We store some of our potatoes in a large storage facility on the corner of the home block, Penlyn, splitting the cost with another local growing family.

The four half-rounded tunnel-shaped refrigerated shed can store a total of 23,000 tonnes of potatoes.

We use larger machinery to help us cover more ground in a shorter period reducing work rate and improving productivity. We also run four truck and trailer units to cart all our produce,except potatoes.