A quiet revolution has occurred in Australia ’s nursery industry . Long last are the days of growers producing plant life in their backyard or run a greenhouse as something ‘ on the side ’ .

It ’s a view echoed by South Australian agriculturalist Peter Jong who , together with his father Nico , operates a successful production greenhouse that specialise in ornamental plants , based at Mt Compass , near Adelaide .

Peter , like many other growers , has a doctrine of continuous improvement and on a regular basis assay out and trials new research , to better the business ’s overall productivity .

“ Recently , we trialled LED lighting over the winter . We will habituate the data and observations from these trials to make a final decision on whether to put in the technology crop - astray , ” Peter said .

“ We ’re really starting to see ourselves as a professional occupation , not just a farming one – and ingest access to better and more dependable data is helping to validate R & D investments . ”

Peter cites the Nursery Industry Statistics ( NY17008 ) project as a premier example of how industry is call forth the bar on better data point . Now in its second year , the project is feed by independent agencies , Down to Earth Research and ACIL Allen .

The project is funded by the greenhouse levy with funds from the Australian Government . It seeks to survey 300 production greenhouse to supply an exact snapshot of the industry ’s societal , economic and environmental contribution .

Peter was one of many growers approached to provide anonymous and secret information in 2017 . The survey is afoot again in 2018 , with calls come about this November , and Peter is encourage others to enter .

“ The more information we have , the better the result . The more item we can extract , specially from the small or medium sized nurseries , the more accurate the representation too , ” he said .

“ When I participated in 2017 , I did n’t rule the process too onerous . We were asked to offer various figures such as total numeral of plants produced , annual turnover , how many staff we hire , wages , amongst other thing .

“ It was very professional and I did n’t need to concern about privacy or competitors – the data point is aggregated to provide an exact snapshot of our diligence , ” he said .

For Peter , a key attraction to the study was the related data tool : a resource provided to participants following pass completion of the sight and the announcement of industry statistics .

The tool enables baby’s room to benchmark carrying into action against other business of a similar size or output focus , comparing primal areas such as profits and costs , wages and training .

Peter said one of the business ’s key barrier is its enceinte reliance on central faculty during tiptop times of the year . He is keen to fine-tune their training procedures to insure fresh or younger staff can hit the undercoat running .

“ We used the instrument to measure how we stacked up against other businesses and discovered that we could endue more in staff education and developing , as well as young machinery to promote upskilling and greater efficiency , ” he said .

“ Overall , I was quite impressed with the information cock – it looked professional and gave you a clear overview of how your stage business compares to other nurseries of a interchangeable size or focus . ”

Peter is looking forward to the second version of data puppet , which will be unveiled to industry early 2019 .

“ There ’s certainly a positive feeling in the industriousness mighty now , and we should all be endeavor to grow the Proto-Indo European , particularly as populations increase and awareness about the benefits of plants become better known , ” he tell .

“ I encourage raiser to see the economic value in this project , and to take the prison term to contribute , for the amelioration of our business and our industry . ”

For more entropy : Nursery & Garden Industry Australia[email   protected]www.ngia.com.au