Field Fresh, TAS
Tim Smallbon ‐ Field Manager
Unlike many growers, Tim Smallbon wasn't born into farming. But what he lacks in lineage, he makes up with a long‐held interest in the land, soil science and technical quality development.
Over time, that interest has helped Tim become Field Manager for Field Fresh Tasmania. Based along Tasmania's north and north‐west coast, Field Fresh are a subsidiary of Webster Ltd (incidentally the 4th oldest company in Australia). And while Tim's been with Field Fresh for 31 years, for the last nine he has lived exclusively in a world of onions.
With fertile soils, good access to irrigation and an established grower base, Field Fresh Tasmania specialise in the cream gold (brown) and the red onion, and have done so for a long time. Starting from a 10 tonne onion trial over 40 years ago, their production has continued to grow to the point that as of February 2014, they supply Woolworths with around 4,000 tonnes of onions each year.
A key factor is the range of micro‐climates from the wide expanse of farming lands. This ensures an ongoing supply so that if one area's production is down, another can make up for it.
"The thing I enjoy most about growing onions is the challenge of seasonal climate variation and adapting to plant growth performance to suit quality and market parameters." ‐ Tim Smallbon
Quality and market parameters are two things that feature strongly with Tim. Alongside taste, he firmly believes full paddock traceability and the highest priority on food safety are the biggest selling points of his onions.
And while it sounds like Tim already knows what he's doing, there's always more to learn. While he's working on the farm, he's continually looking at ways to match the crop performance to his customers' expectations. Which is why he's always ready to listen:
"I make every decision and recommendation as if the outcome impacted on me personally." ‐ Tim Smallbon
In another life Tim would love to be involved in research and development trials to improve cultivar selection and overall onion product quality. But with the challenge of delivering quality onions to Woolworths he has no plans to do that right now. Growing that many onions doesn't come easy.
Beginning with field selection and pre‐planting preparation, precision planting then takes place before the agronomy management phase (a technical way of saying looking after the plants while they grow).
After the harvest, the onions are taken in, sorted and processed to be ready for packaging into bags (one or two kilos for Browns, One kilo for Reds), or loose into boxes, before finally making their way to Woolworths' delivery centre ‐ ready for the shelf.
Tim knows he's in a successful business ‐ as highlighted by the depth and continuity of the key relationships across generations. Just one of the reasons he sees himself doing the same for many more years to come.