Canterbury’s family-owned Carrfields Group is developing a multimillion-dollar research and development farm for seed and plant innovation.
The farming, property and agribusiness company exports to more than 40 countries and has about 300 employees and contractors throughout New Zealand and India.
Carrfields has bought Spring Farm in Winslow, previously owned by NZ Tractors, to convert it into a research and development facility for its Winseed brand.
A house, office and sheds on 20ha will be remodelled into the innovation hub for research, breeding and seed technology.
The farm will include a breeding centre featuring glasshouses, nurseries, grow houses and trial plots to drive its R&D programme and high-grade seed production.
The property will also be used to support work within other areas of the Carrfields group, including grain and seed screening trials for pastoral, arable and vegetable seeds, specialist stock seed, precision machinery trials and trials on plant nutrition and protection.
Managing director Craig Carr said the site was the perfect size and location for the group’s R&D facility.
“This has been purchased by the group to bring [R&D] in-house on one site rather than third-party operators and farms we have used in past. We need to invest in specific assets so need to have them on land we own and control.”
He said there were many advantages of having an in-house facility, including providing security for intellectual property and being able to conduct long-term plant research and breeding projects.
The company had not disclosed the total cost for the facility, which involved the purchase of the land and further development probably costing millions of dollars over coming years.
Carrfields wanted to work with other parties and projects would probably include collaborations with internal groups as well as seed, machinery, technology, machinery, plant nutrition and protection suppliers and with fully-owned subsidiary Winseed.
A team is working on phase one of the project, which includes building infrastructure and planning rotational planting over the next year.
