Growers: Andrew Coombe and Anna Fraser, Lorn Turf
Property: Hicks Road, Lorn, Hunter Valley NSW
Focus: Specialists in TurfBreed varieties
Market: Residential developments and home improvers
Varieties: Sapphire Soft Leaf Buffalo, Shademaster Buffalo, Kikuyu
You might say it’s been a baptism of fire for Lorn Turf co-owners Andrew Coombe and Anna Fraser who opened their Hunter Valley farm for business in November 2020. The couple have battled drought, flood, insect pests and the curve balls thrown by COVID-19 lockdowns but remain upbeat and smiling, just like the sunflowers they inadvertently became famous for. Sandra Godwin explains how the sunflowers created a valuable point-of-different for their business and re-ignited turf sales!
What a year it has been for passionate turf growers Anna Fraser and Andrew Coombe who rather than leaving a bare patch of dirt, previously marked for turf, decided to sow it to sunflowers.
The sunflowers would act as a wind break between their Kikuyu and Buffalo paddocks as well as give the couple something pretty to look at.
For the couple, it was all about trying to be innovative during exceptionally tough times and think of ways to add to their turf income.
It wasn’t long until the field of gold began to attract attention from passer-by’s, and friends and family suggested they “do something” with the giant flowers.
During December, Andrew and Anna threw open the gates to allow people to take their own Insta-worthy photographs and buy hundreds of the yellow and red blooms.
Delighted by the response, they opened the field again at Easter and the event snowballed – thanks to their story being shared across Facebook – with the addition of food trucks, a coffee van, jumping castle and animal petting zoo.
“It just blew up,” Anna said. “It was bigger than we anticipated and a bit of a shock on the day. The people lining-up caught us off guard, but it was a really fun day.”
The exposure has also helped boost turf orders from their primary market: new home builders and buyers in the residential subdivisions mushrooming across the lower Hunter Valley, Maitland, Newcastle and Central Coast areas.
The sunflower sale provided a valuable point-of-difference for the turf business. Competition in the region is keen, with at least eight turf growers within a 10 kilometres radius of the village of Lorn, which is now considered a suburb of Maitland.
Andrew and Anna operate Lorn Turf on 12 hectares of farmland adjoining the Hunter River, that they lease from Anna’s mother, Jenny.
The farm has been used for turf production since 1983 and Andrew and Anna got their start in the industry producing turf for Eturf’s Mark Simpson and Kerrie Everson.
In the process of establishing a new farm at Louth, less than 3km to the south as the crow flies, Mark and Kerrie contracted Andrew and Anna to grow turf for two years.
Anna was no stranger to turf. Her grandfather, Doug, converted the family vegetable farm to turf production in 1983 when he started growing turf on contract.
“For me, the turf was always here,” she said. “When I was growing up, my granddad did the same thing as us, he looked after the turf for another company. So, we were always on the tractors mowing and helping. We all really loved it.”
After studying agriculture and business at the University of New England in Armidale, Anna thought she might one day pursue a career in agronomy.
However, Anna explained that when Mark and Kerrie offered the opportunity to supply turf, it was too good an opportunity to pass.
“We would manage and grow the turf and they would harvest it. That went on for two years until October 2020 when Andrew and I took over and began Lorn Turf,” Anna said.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Drought raised salinity levels in the Hunter River from which they draw water for irrigation. This affected the ability to roll turf in some places.
And once the drought broke, the pair had to deal with an outbreak of African Black Beetles, followed by Curl Grubs.
“That was our first big challenge,” Anna said. “We hadn’t seen that before, but we dealt with it.”
Lorn Turf has 5ha of Sapphire Soft Leaf Buffalo and Shademaster Buffalo in production and another 7ha of ground is being prepared for planting in the next year or two.
A 2ha paddock of common Kikuyu has been ripped-up to be replaced with Kenda Kikuyu, and a 3ha patch is earmarked for Prestige Buffalo. About 1.5ha will be planted to another TurfBreed variety, either OZTUFF Couch or Empire Zoysia.
Andrew said they decided some time ago to focus mostly on TurfBreed varieties which they’ve chosen based on customer demand for particular turf types.
“From a lot of research into the varieties and speaking with Ann McKeon at TurfBreed, I believe the Kenda Kikuyu to be the best choice for our location and weather patterns,” he said.
“There’s lots of people, especially in the mum and dad market, with new builds who prefer Buffalo and then there’s also a lot of demand for Couch in the area as well. So that drives what we want to plant.”
Anna said customers loved the Sapphire Soft Leaf Buffalo, so they were keen to add Prestige Buffalo to their range.
“It is such a nice turf with a dark, green colour and superior qualities and it’s what they’re after,” she said.
“Having both varieties means we won’t have to turn people away, so whether they want fine leaf or broadleaf, something darker in colour or a bit lighter colour, we have every option.”
Business has been quieter during winter, which is not unusual because of the cooler weather. It’s also partly because Lorn Turf sold out of most of its stock before tearing up the Kikuyu field, and a section of Buffalo is still recovering from flooding in March.
While the farm appears to be level, it is bisected by a sandy rise. Anna said the sand was a relic from the 1955 flood that swept through the Valley, inundating Maitland with up to 5 metres of muddy water.
“My grandfather told me about it,” she said. “When we’re rolling the turf, you can see where it goes from a nice clay loam that holds together quite well to where it becomes very sandy.”
In the most recent flooding – after 130 millimetres of rain fell at Lorn on March 20 and 21 about 1ha was damaged by the prolonged inundation. The couple have worked on a remedy plan with Greenway Turf Solutions.
“Garth Annan at Greenway has been very helpful and we’re about to start the remedial program,” Anna said.
“We’ve already got multiple orders at the moment booked for September and October. We can see turf that’s going to be ready by then, so we’ve booked that out. Although we’ve dropped our marketing right off, now the weather’s starting to warm up, the phone has been ringing every day from people wanting to get their lawn established before the summer.”
Andrew and Anna share most of the farm duties. Anna drives the two-man sod harvester – they have a Brouwer Kesmac and a Poyntz harvester as a backup – and Andrew stands at the back, stacking the 46 centimetre rolls onto a pallet.
Andrew has a truck license, so he does the deliveries each morning in the 10-pallet truck, equipped with a Moffett forklift, and Anna takes care of spraying while he’s on the road.
They plan to build a shed and office soon and, once the whole farm is planted, hope to employ an office assistant and truck driver.
This will enable Andrew and Anna to focus on managing the farm and providing lawn care advice to their customers.
“We’ve also just become a LawnPride stockist,” Andrew said. “Once we get the new shed we’ll have a proper store so people that want to look after their lawns properly can come to us for fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides or anything they need.”
Anna said they recently began offering a lawn installation service, with the help of her brothers, Douglas and Alastair, who pitch in to help around their day jobs as a plumber and teacher.
Future plans also include building relationships with landscapers once they have the capacity to fulfill bigger orders.
Large commercial jobs will remain off-limits until they can afford to buy a single-operator harvester.
“Our goal is to eventually get a single-man harvester, which will allow us to become much more efficient, dropping the workload to one person and reducing the overall harvesting time,” Anna said.
“We are both very much looking forward to growing and supplying more TurfBreed varieties throughout the Hunter and seeing the farm evolve in the next few years.”