Dominique Zivkovich-Brady started out picking lemons but soon found there was much more to working in a citrus orchard, and plenty of places to go. Now she is leading research and quality for a company that grows citrus fruit for New Zealand and overseas markets. 

"Every day is so, so different. I co-ordinate the pest monitoring on our 10 orchards. I decide how many people we need to do the pest monitoring, train them if they are new, and supervise them. 

"I also carry out and report on technical monitoring. This covers crop estimates, fruit growth measurements, fruit internal quality, soil and leaf nutrient analysis, general tree health and climate measurements. 

"The core of my job is research, covering everything in citrus regarding quality and tree health. We might find a really good idea and want to apply it to our orchards but we always trial it first. I plan and carry out trials and report on results. I do some of the analysis and help decide if we are going to apply the findings in the orchard. 

"I work not only with people within the company, but researchers from other institutions like HortResearch. I am very lucky because I get to work with a lot of very different but interesting people."

Dominique didn't start in the industry with the intention of becoming a horticultural technician; after she left school she got a job picking lemons. "The turning point came when I got into quality control and started to see that wow, it wasn't really all just about picking, pruning and thinning," she says.

As Dominique has progressed she has undertaken some formal training. "I was approached by the local Horticulture ITO and asked to do the Certificate in Fruit Production Level 4 Advanced. It was part time so I was still able to work. 

"That’s a really good thing about the industry – there is a lot of on-the-job training and you can beef it up with formal training like certificates.

"The cool thing about this industry is that you can see the results. It is challenging but at the end of it you’ve got a product and you can say, 'That lemon looks fantastic and I did that because we controlled this pest, or we pruned the trees well so there were fewer diseases'." 

Dominique's career highlights

• Got Horticulture New Zealand Scholarships.
• Won the Northland Young Fruitgrower of the Year award.
• Second in the National Young Horticulturalist (fruit sector) competition.