RETIRED NSW policeman Graham Eipper and his wife, Barbara, have taken just five years to resurrect a neglected citrus farm.

Along the way they have also joined the potentially lucrative hazelnut industry.

The couple's move from a small citrus grove near Griffith to a bigger farm, Glendale, at Sandigo, southeast of Narrandera, NSW, coincided with Graham's retirement after 37 years with the NSW Police Force.

"Once I retired, we needed something larger but of a size we could manage," Graham said.

"I knew citrus, so when we saw Glendale on the market, we came and had a look."

After 10 years in the citrus industry, including a stint as chairman of the regional citrus growers' body, Graham thought he knew every Riverina orchard.

So discovering Glendale was a revelation.

Sandwiched between large properties, it is the only citrus farm on the Murrumbidgee River east of Narrandera.

"I didn't even know it existed," Graham said.

He said Barbara was sold on the place from the outset.

"We saw the potential to make a go of it and possibly diversify into something else," he said.

The first challenge was to bring the 30ha of citrus back into full production.

"The trees lacked fertiliser and water and were badly affected by red scale," Graham said.

To tackle the scale, the couple bought aphytismelinus wasps from the Department of Primary Industries in South Australia.

"We saturated the farm with four releases each year for the first two years, releasing 25,000 wasps per hectare," Graham said. "We have controlled 80 to 90 per cent of red scale and will get the outlay back in money saved on chemicals."

A $20,000 drought-assistance grant was used to install 35km of drip irrigation to replace a microspray system.

Graham built a pipe feeder mounted on the back of a tractor-trailer. As Barbara drove he fed out the poly pipe.

"It cut down on time and saved a lot of bending and scrambling around under the trees," he said.

"The drip irrigation is more efficient and there is no wastage."

To increase the water supply, Graham installed a bore and pump.

"We've got a 75-megalitre water licence for the bore, plus a 110-megalitre high-security entitlement from the river," he said.

With the trees recovering, the couple turned their attention to improving accommodation for casual pickers, installing a shower block, a toilet block and cooking facilities.

"We employ two local pickers and also employ backpackers in the season, and treat them as members of the family," Graham said.

The orchard has 23ha of valencias grown under contract for a local juice processor which yield 22 tonnes a hectare.

In addition, 7 hectares of Washington navels yield 17 tonnes a hectare for the export market.

The total annual citrus production is 600 tonnes.

With the orange yields back on track, Graham and Barbara turned their attention to hazelnuts as a low-care crop.

"We did our research and found there was a big demand, as 95 per cent of hazelnuts are imported, mostly from Turkey," Graham said.

"They sell for $30 a kilo and don't take a lot of looking after.

"We put in 1200 trees and lost a few in the first year, so we've done a bit of replanting and have had no losses this year."

The trees were bought from the Megalong Valley propagation nursery in the Blue Mountains as mature whips (single sticks with buds).

The disease-free rootstock came from the US.

Graham said the tress had grown well, considering the drought and high temperatures,

"Our trees have been two years in the ground and hopefully we'll have our first (small) harvest next autumn," he said.

Yields are expected to increase each year until the full commercial production of about 10kg a tree in the sixth or seventh year.

Six varieties were selected to obtain the recommended mix of main varieties and pollinators. Hazelnuts are wind pollinated.

"Later, we may have to invest in some machinery, but initially we'll pick the nuts off the ground," Graham said.

"If they take off, we may sacrifice some citrus and put in more hazelnut trees."

The Eippers joined the Hazelnut Growers of Australia, a body that offers advice to new growers.

Hazelnuts are grown commercially in Victoria, NSW and Tasmania, with more than 80,000 trees planted or in production.

The couple are the first in the Riverina to trial hazelnuts and several neighbours are watching the venture with interest.

However, there are no likely future nut-growers among Graham's and Barbara's five children. The youngest has set her sights on a veterinary career and the others are established in non-agricultural fields.