His company, Roseburn Farming, in the Lockyer Valley, grows the crop all year round with most of his production sent to processed cabbage producers, including Mrs Crockett’s Kitchens.

But when winter turns to spring the season can turn into something of a “heart-breaker” for the Hodges family.

While growing cabbages on a year-round basis, the change in the season, when temperatures jump from an average 28C to 32C, often led to his crops suffering calcium tip burn.

“It absolutely breaks your heart to look at a paddock filled with cabbages that look great but are not useable,” Mr Hodges said.

“You don’t know you have got it until you cut them open and it’s just devastating when you have to throw a whole paddock away.

“Even worse is when you pay to have it harvested and transported, so you pick it and send it only to have it rejected at the other end – that really hurts because you can’t recoup all those costs.”

The solution for Roseburn Farming lay with Advanced Nutrients agronomist/horticulturist, Neville Janke.

It was his recommendation to put together a custom blend which put more potassium and less nitrogen into the soil that made all the difference.

As a result the custom blend became the base fertiliser with Steven adding two other products - Foliar Fert Advanced Complete and C Lift – which put his enterprise on a more sound commercial footing.

“The last three years have been nothing short of amazing,” he said.

“There were a couple of times there where we couldn’t sell a block. Now we have improved our yield by 85 to 90 percent.”

Mr Hodges said any grower would know the loss of a block translated into big dollars.

Over a couple of paddocks, and a two-year timespan, losses could exceed $80,000 – a scenario that had been averted with his new fertiliser regime.

“These days we might get one or two cabbages a paddock with the tip problem but not a whole paddock as before,” he said