A Year on a Farm: producer video
TLF ID M019391
This is a video about operation of an organic orchard near Kalangadoo in South Australia and the commitment to biodiversity of its owners Michelle and Chris McColl. Michelle McColl describes and illustrates the annual cycle of work with the trees and fruit while discussing the economic and agronomical advantages of the farm's transformation from a monoculture of a few varieties of apples to its present diversity of more than 90 varieties plus 30 varieties of stone fruit. She lists the types of sales outlets they use and how they value-add with dried apples, apple juice and apple cider vinegar. She introduces the various farm animals, explaining the roles they play and emphasising that biodiversity is the key to organic farming. The video lasts 3:54 min and in the final sequences Chris McColl tells how they have modelled their orchard on a natural forest system with trees, understory vegetation and animals, and how animals, rather than sprays, do much of the work of keeping pests under control.