In the early 1990s, the Longridge Olive farm was purchased in South Australia, only at the time it looked a little different. Starting as a sheep farm, the property's potential was still there to be unearthed. In 1998, Jim and Lisa Rowntree, founders of Longridge Olives, planted their first olive trees, and the rest is history.
Speaking with Harrison Rowntree, son of Jim and Lisa, we heard about Longridge Olives' rich history and discussed some of the solutions that are making their farm more productive every single day.
Harrison shared how his father was a dairy farmer with a focus on automation and efficiency but found dairying difficult with a young family. After striking good water on a farm out of Coonalpyn, his parents left the dairy farm and jumped headfirst into the fledgling olive industry.
As the only olive growers in the area, Jim and Lisa, by default, became the go-to experts on olives in the region and helped to grow it to what it is today. From campaigning for accurate olive oil labelling to supporting the local mill, the family was fundamental to the sector. By 2008, Jim and Lisa had planned and planted over 600 hectares of olives, 87 of which were on their own farm.
After a health scare in the family almost a decade ago, the Rowntree sons, Harrison and his brother, Lachlan, returned to level up their own farm, working alongside their parents to build their own olive mill as the first step towards complete vertical integration. With this new guard on farm, productivity and efficiency enhancement ideas were frequently brainstormed at the dinner table and implemented to change the way the farm worked.
Monitoring irrigation line issues with push notifications, collecting sensor data to build a property monitoring system, and installing a homebuilt autosteer into their harvester have seen extensive benefits for the business.
Remote sensing provides an accurate map of tree health that can be used to measure the results of the irrigation maintenance regimes, reduce water stress, and increase yields.
Other advantages of implementing productivity measures have included reducing manual checks of valves from a two-three week constant circuit to service every valve, down to on the spot fixes as needed, meaning other jobs can be tended to. The autosteer has also led to an increase of olives being caught by the harvester as it now sits on the centre of the tree line with tighter fishplates better than a human driver can.
The family philosophy is "do what you have to, if that" and if something must be done - "do it once and do it well to save yourself a future problem." By implementing well thought out solutions, over simple fixes, they are finding that the productivity solutions are solving challenges for them and freeing up more hours to address other things across the property.
Looking ahead, there are no plans to slow down. After planting another 27 hectares of olives last year, they hope to continue to expand in 2025 and beyond with new sheds, equipment, and a fox proof fence that nature conservations will envy.
Through watching trends and identifying where the most impact can be made on farm, Harrison and his family have implemented solutions that will pay off well into the future.
