KOTTA processing tomato grower Geoff Wolfe is looking forward to an earlier start to this year's harvest.
It's thanks to the weather and his decision to switch from sowing a crop from seed to transplanting seedlings.
Mr Wolfe, who has worked on tomato farms or grown tomatoes for 34 years, said until this year he was one of the last two growers from Kotta, in northern Victoria, still direct-seeding.
Despite the advantages of seedlings - such as an instant crop, water savings and earlier harvest - Mr Wolfe questioned the move when he found himself, during November's unseasonal heatwave with 40,000 seedlings, all needing to be hand-watered.
Fortunately, the plants survived and the 71ha of crops are now at varying stages, from flowering to fruiting.
Regular irrigation is still critical, with each hectare requiring five to 7 1/2 megalitres of water during the growing season, which must be applied daily in warm, windy weather.
Mr Wolfe and his wife, Yvonne, have grown tomatoes on sub-surface trickle irrigation for the past 14 years.
Initially they leased land, before buying their own farm, southwest of Echuca, 12 years ago.
While the irrigation and fertigation system was expensive to establish, at $9900-$12,350 a hectare, it is efficient and has enabled the Wolfes to continue growing crops, albeit on smaller areas, with reduced water allocations during the past three years.
In 2007, they produced their smallest crop, 56.5ha, compared to the previous year's biggest crop, of 100ha.
The Wolfes grow three varieties of tomato, suitable for paste, dicing and canning, which they will mechanically harvest from mid-February to late-March - six weeks earlier than usual - and truck to the Cedenco plant at Echuca for processing.
Cedenco went into receivership in November, but is continuing to trade until the company is sold.
Mr Wolfe said his interest in agriculture began when he worked on his father's dairy farm as a teenager.
"I walked straight out of school and my brother was growing tomatoes at that stage," he said.
"My first job was to hop on a tractor and cultivate tomatoes and it continued on.
"Then I went working for different growers (and I) thought it wasn't a bad industry to be in.
"At that stage it was good but it's a lot tougher nowadays."
Processing tomato grower numbers have fallen from 160 to fewer than 30 in the past 20 years because of competition from cheap imports, low farmgate prices, costly infrastructure and unpredictable seasons.
