Cropping & Grazing

Potatoes

Leighton’s father, Allan Pye began growing potatoes while still at school and now over 60 years later Pye Group are still growing potatoes.  Most of the potato crops are gown on our two cropping farms near Rakaia in Mid Canterbury and all potatoes are supplied to the McCain factory in nearby Timaru for processing.

The potato season begins with approximately seven weeks of planting in September and October.  The harvest begins in February with an early crop and the harvest of the main crop begins in April and takes up to eight weeks.

Carrots

Pye Group also grow 19,000 tonnes of carrots for Juice Products NZ. These carrots are mainly grown in Mid Canterbury. After harvesting they are washed at one of our two washers before being delivered to the juicing factory in Timaru.

See more about the process and JPNZ click here.

Wheat, barley, grass seed, peas and clover make up the rest of the Pye Group’s crops.

Grazing

Pye Group provide grazing for their dairy farms including the year round grazing of all replacement stock. Kale and fodderbeet crops are grown for the winter feed for over 9,000 cows and heifers.

Other Crops – Wheat, barley

A small amount of milling wheat is grown for Farmers Mill, a farmer owned flour mill located in Washdyke.  For more information about Farmers mill click here