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.

Click here to take a look back in time and see how potatoes were harvested by Leighton’s father in the 1970s compared to 2021.

Carrots

Pye Group grow 16,000 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.

You can see more about our carrot growing operation and our relationship with JPNZ here.
We also grow approximately 2,500 tonnes of processing carrots each year.

Other Crops

Annually we grow approximately 3,000 tonnes of wheat and 2,000 tonnes of barley mostly for the stock food market.  We also grow approximately 400 tonnes of clover, grass and other small seeds along with a paddock of process peas each season.

Grazing

Pye Group provide grazing for their dairy farms including the year round grazing of all replacement stock. Grazing is managed and stock are cared for by our dedicated Young Stock team who work across numerous blocks in the Rangitata and Raincliff areas.