Valley Syndicate use sustainable practices to improve soil health and protect the reef

The business farms MD2s and 7350s, Aus-carnival, and smooth cayenne pineapples on 161 hectares in Bungundarra.

When he purchased the property in 2010, Mr Cranny opted for techniques that were safer for his employees and focused on building good soil health.

"We rely on the soil so the healthier we can make it, the better off we are. The less chemicals we use, the safer it is for our guys," he said.

Methyl bromide fumigation is common practice used on pineapple farms to control crop damaging pests such as root-knot nematodes and symphylids, which result in failure to thrive and yield reduction.

Mr Cranny opted out of fumigation when he purchased the property as soil testings showed no nematodes. The land had the added benefit only having been lightly grazed prior to planting.

"It's a deadly poison... and it doesn't matter how good your PPE is, you are still going to breathe and touch some of it because it's on the bottle or in the air," he said.

He trailed a one hectare organic crop a few years ago, but said yield was low, labour too intensive to be profitable, and the premium too high for consumers.

Just under 12 months ago he brought on general manager Neil Parami, an agronomist with a wealth of knowledge who worked extensively on pineapple crops in the Philippines.

Mr Parami said although miticides were used once every three years and along the fence-line of an adjoining property, pest mitigation for nematodes and syphylids was done by improving plant nutrition.

Techniques for that included less soil disturbance, and incorporating biomass and microbes back into the soils with a high-value compost.

Before Mr Parami came on board, the business was using compost from cotton byproducts, but when broken down it was mostly made up of nitrogen and carbon.

He found a Brisbane-based compost supplier that could add additional elements in to improve plant health such as iron and manganese.

Mr Parami said he has been able to look at the breakdown of nutrients in the compost and add in additional compounds based on any nutrients which may be lacking in the soils, found through soil analysis.

Another initiative on the farm has been to use biological foliar fertiliser treatments fortnightly as opposed to dry fertiliser to increase uptake and try to avoid nutrient run-off eventually ending up on the reef.

Valley Syndicate is Reef Certified through Hort360 and follows practices like planting on a contour, fertilising in smaller amounts less often, maintaining pockets of vegetation, and slit trapping soil runoff to redistribute back on farm.

"We need that soil to grow pineapples, if it all washes into the reef we've got no hills anymore and we're done," Mr Cranny said.

To mitigate high heat and looking ahead to climate-proof his crop, Mr Cranny has started using a hay thrower to protect the budding flowers from the heat when temperatures rose above 36 degrees and wind dropped off.

He said he implemented the technique around four years ago, which has meant less instances of widespread deformities.

He said the cost of the hay distribution to protect the flower was more cost effective than loosing a large percentage of his crop.

Looking forward to the future John hoped to see more options to monetise environmentally-friendly practices and certifications, especially if supermarkets moved to prioritising produce grown with sustainability in mind.

Sign up here to Good Fruit and Vegetables weekly newsletter for all the latest horticulture news each Thursday...