SADLY, life on soldier settlement blocks proved to be just another battle for many veterans coming home from war.

For too many of them, a losing battle, on blocks too small, with not enough water and an industry demanding they get bigger or get out.

AT A GLANCE
• Who: Andrew and Claire Routley
• What: Tree nursery
• Why: Controlling your destiny
• Where: Katunga
• Report: ANDREW MOLE

Which most of them did. When the land around Katunga in northern Victoria was cut up, its planners surveyed 30 dairy farms and 64 orchard blocks.

Today, just one orchard block remains, although, over the years, it has captured several others to build it to its 89ha.

And its owners, third generation orchardist Andrew Routley and wife Claire, have reinvented themselves as the Little Tree Company and have gone on the offensive to remain relevant and viable.

Starting out as the standard fruit grower, delivering canning peaches and pears to SPC for processing, as well as fresh market apples, cherries and citrus, the Routleys wanted greater control of their destiny.

And it's their nursery tree business which has really set them apart.

What they envisioned was a more flexible world outside the "ridiculous royalty programs" of the big plant breeders.

Which did not mean them toddling off to do their own plant breeding, or not even using trees with royalties attached. But it did mean linking up with people they felt had the industry's best interests at heart.

"As a commercial nursery, we work with those breeders who are focused on always improving things for orchardists," Claire said.

"There is still a central control, but that is essential, otherwise things would be all over the shop and some varieties would end up being overgrown, and that only sets things back.

"In addition to the orchard, we have also propagated canning peaches (all public varieties) for ourselves and a few other local growers.

"Our next step to expand the nursery was to purchase an Australian Nurseryman's Fruit Improvement Company licence, which will allow us to propagate Plant Breeders Rights varieties.

"This makes us the first licensed nursery located in the Goulburn Valley, Australia's largest fruit growing region.

"We also have an extensive evaluation block, which has around 250 stone-fruit varieties, some only out of quarantine this year. That number will increase each year as new varieties are released from quarantine."

The Little Tree Company saw 65,000 trees go in last harvest. Next season it will be a whopping 350,000.

Right now, the stone-fruit market is on a roll - domestically and for export.

Taiwan and China are big markets for white-flesh fruit, although Claire said the high dollar was having a serious impact on their sales.

They are also running 100 stone-fruit varieties, 20 of them are the core of the crop, covering peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums, and the balance cater for niche demand.

Trees go in as seeds each August and are budded in November. The Routleys work with custom root stock and by the time the trees are pulled for sale, some have reached two metres.

"A tree can be expected to have its first commercial yield in year three, but will fruit in year two in a trellis operation, although that is a more costly way to set up," Andrew said.

"At the moment, we are basing our business on orders, producing trees which will suit an individual grower's environment where possible.

"On top of the orders, we dabble in some 'spec' varieties which we think have a lot of promise but which have to prove themselves before we can convince commercial growers to make the switch.

"We use contract grafters, because all our budding is done in ground, by hand. Your average budder can do 3000-4000 a day, with one person trailing behind tying up the graft.

"But we have one guy, he's in his 60s, and he is just a machine, budding as many as 6000 a day, with two, and sometimes three, people behind trying to keep up with him tying each graft."

Andrew said one of the industry's problems has been the reluctance of big players to do evaluation work on varieties outside the mainstream".

But not the Routleys. They decided to do it themselves.

Every year, their evaluation program sees them introduce new varieties, which attracts growers looking for the "next big thing".

"But we're not just running a sales office," Andrew said.

"We also farm, and, like everyone else, we have been burnt in the past, one way or another. We want to make sure we don't do that to any of our customers."