Anthony Wachtel
Anthony Wachtel - or ‘ Wocky ’ as most of his industry peers refer to him – has the important role of managing the Almond Board of Australia ’ s Almond Centre for Excellence ( ACE ) research orchard at Loxton . A born and bred Riverlander who calls Moorook home , Wocky started his career as a fitter and turner at General Motors Holden in the 1980s . After a stint in the wine industry , he moved on to greener pastures and joining the almond industry in 1997 as a maintenance supervisory at Jubilee Almonds . He ’ s also worked at Century Orchards in management roles before coming to the ABA . The ACE Orchard was just a greenfield development site when he joined in 2017 and it ’ s grown considerably since then – both in terms of plantings , and the number of trials currently underway . Looking after the orchard is a big task – there ’ s managing water and fertilising schedules , balancing foliar and weed spraying with the weather , the demands of harvest and all the other management tasks that go hand in hand with running a research facility . But that focus on constant improvement is one of the things that sets the almond industry apart for Wocky .
“ The people in the industry are great and open to improving what we do and how it ’ s done .”