Temuka, NZ
CATEGORY: COMMUNITY AND PEOPLE (GROWER)
As the head of Turley Farms, Murray Turley has a lot on his plate.
He heads up a 2,930 ha-operation based at Temuka on New Zealand’s South Island, producing cereals, potatoes, onions, hybrid vegetable seeds of carrots, canola, radish and red beet and ryegrass and white clover for seed.
Yet Murray still has time to make a significant contribution to the agricultural sector outside his own business.
Murray is chairman of Southern Packers, an onion and potato packhouse. He was one of the founding shareholders of the packhouse set up 20 years ago with four Canterbury-region farming families, and has been chairman since its inception.
Murray is also the chairman of the Rangitata South Irrigation Scheme, which this year will buy the scheme from the construction company.
A large commitment over the last five years has been Farmers Mill, where growers constructed a Flour Mill to mill their own wheat and sell the flour branded 100 per cent New Zealand grown. Murray is the chairman here and has driven this project from its vision through to reality.
Dairy Holdings is a large Dairy Farming operation that Margaret and Murray are shareholders in. Murray’s involvement here is on a governance level.
While he has heavy commitments off farm, Murray does not lose sight of the importance of maintaining strong staff training, and is proud that two of the senior roles in the company have been filled through internal promotions.
Murray says it is critical in a large enterprise like Turley Farms for staff to feel like they are a valuable part of the family operation.
“Staff retention has been pivotal to the success of Turley Farms – with seven staff having more than 150 years of combined service,” he says.