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Page Last Updated:
Monday, 31 March 2008 |
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| Agriculture & Horticulture | |
| Wellington has a perfect climate for horticulture and agriculture and is a centre for fresh fruit and vegetable production.
Wellington’s rainfall is reliable and generally records lower temperatures than Melbourne making it ideal for summer vegetable crops. Wellington's rivers feed the plains which are used by the major dairy, vegetable, beef and horticulture producers which are also supported by underground water.
As a major supplier of live dairy cattle for exportation and beef production, Victorian Livestock Exchange acquired the operation of the saleyards located at Sale. The saleyards are located in the centre of Sale township, approximately 2.5km from the Shire offices.
The 50km2 area has 140 cattle sale pens and 288 individual sheep pens with undercover stacking pens for live weight selling. Weekly cattle, pig, calf and sheep markets plus quarterly horse sales and excellent facilities make that saleyards a vital element of the agriculture sector in Wellington.
Vegetables are grown in many area of Wellington, mostly in the Longford and Boisdale region. Vegetables produced include green peas, beans, snow peas, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, sweet corn and asparagus. These are both exported to the overseas markets and distributed to the domestically.
'Covino Farms Produce' in Longford produce high quality, pre-packaged, ready to eat salads and vegetables such as carrots. Boisdale's 'Mulgowie' produces beans, sweet corn, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chinese cabbage and lettuce. Smaller vegetable farms situated at Meerlieu and Stratford produce vegetables such as potatoes and asparagus.
'The Australian Wildflower Company' in Longford are one of the main flowers producers in the region. Australian flowers cover half of the farm's 80 acres with the remaining 40 acres covered in South African flowers.
Other niche markets in the Wellington region include alpacas, emus, ostriches, wool, walnuts and grapes which are farmed throughout the shire.
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