Environmental Stewardship
At Thwaites Farms Ltd., we care a great deal about our environment, as all farmers do. We protect and maintain our water and soils because that is what we rely on to grow our crops. In practice, our dedication to being stewards of our land includes the following:
- All prunings are shredded in the orchard and left to compost and re-incorporate into the soil. This is a big improvement from the old days of burning all the prunings.
- Reduced tillage is utilized to maintain our soil structure which helps in water and nutrient retention, and it also reduces fuel consumption.
- Mushroom compost is spread to help reduce the use of commercial fertilizers and help increase the organic matter and soil structure.
- Microjet irrigation is utilized to improve the efficiency of our water usage, reduce fuel consumption and eliminate any runoff.
- IPM best practices and expert agronomists are used to schedule the best time and best product to use to solve pest problems.
- Use of beneficial insects, organic products and site- or pest-specific products.