The farm in Mildura, Victoria, consists of 352 acres and I purchased it in 2004, so I am a first-generation farmer. When purchased, it was a mix of citrus, avocado, figs and wine grapes, but the drought in 2008 and declining wine grape prices saw us deciding to just focus on citrus.

Average annual rainfall in the area is 250mm. To date this year, we have had 241mm, so 2016 is classed as a wet year. At present, we are fertilising through ground-applied and via drip irrigation as well as by foliar application.

Next year’s buds are there so we have to ensure the tree is well fed before flowering. We are also weediciding and pruning to ensure there is minimal dead wood inside the tree and to promote new fruiting wood and also minimise wind blemish on new crop.

Harvesting starts for us in May with the navel varieties of orange and in a normal year navel harvest usually continues until around November.

A slightly lighter crop sees us near the end now, with Valencia orange harvest beginning. The Valencia harvest for us will take five months.

The Australian government is currently conducting a review into working holiday visas, including the age limit and the taxation. We are hopeful of a positive outcome that gives us more options and more importantly a fair and competitive tax rate for our much-needed mobile backpacker workforce. Australian horticulture employs around 57,000 people.

A large percentage of that workforce is backpackers, not because they get paid less (they get paid the same rate as Australians), but because it is a flexible mobile workforce. I currently have around 25 backpackers picking citrus at the moment. If we lose the backpacker labour force, a large proportion of whom come from Ireland and the UK, Australian horticulture will suffer and will struggle to get the crop picked, which would be such a blow to horticulture but also devastating to those countries relying on our quality fresh produce to feed them.

Horticulture is the fastest-growing agricultural sector in Australia, with a farmgate value of $10bn, but retail is at least three or four times that. Citrus broke all of its export records last year and is primed to continue that growth, especially in KCT (Korea, China, Thailand). We seriously could have sold our crop four times this year.

We are becoming more innovative and more export focused which means we are more attractive to youth. It’s not all about growing citrus – there is the business management, the marketing and branding and this is how we entice youth into horticulture. The average age of growers is 56. To get this down we have to show that farming is more than hard day-to-day work.

Getting more people involved in our industry is paramount to success. New passion and new ideas are what helps to drive our success.