Greenvale
Greenvale AP operates a potato crop management that uses accurate and reliable recording of data to describe key milestones and growth stages. Our team of agronomists capture this data to provide insights to both growers and us. The data includes location of field, planting date, plant population, emergence date, rate of canopy growth etc.
We make use of grower management software for our agronomic recommendations. Focusing on supporting operational crop management rather than agronomic crop interpretation. We achieve this interpretation by analysing and transposing the raw data from the software into an agronomic database from which crop development can be monitored.
These raw agronomic data are augmented with historic data describing emergence, canopy development, yield and meteorology to build up a detailed assessment of the season as it develops, with increasing accuracy.
The result is a very large dataset for many different crops, varieties and regions which can be compared against each other and relative crop performance can be ascertained.
This ability to predict likely crop yields and size distribution, by variety, region, etc and estimate the total UK yield of potatoes as early as mid-June allows Greenvale’s commercial team to make much better informed decisions with its customers.
Monaghan Mushrooms & Tesco
This year Tesco exclusively launched the UK’s first-ever range of mushrooms, which are grown by Monaghan Mushrooms in extra light to naturally enhance their vitamin D levels similar to wild outdoor-grown varieties.
Mushrooms contain a substance called ergosterol which allows them to naturally make vitamin D when they are exposed to light.
The launch of the new range includes Chestnut, Baby Chestnut and Portobello mushrooms.
It followed a recent report byhealth experts who are concerned that people do not get enough vitamin D – needed to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy – during the darker winter months.
Tesco mushroom expert Marek Kutera said: “As we head into the winter months, we know it can be increasingly difficult to meet the daily recommendations for vitamin D from a natural source. These delicious mushrooms will make it easier than ever for shoppers to get all of their allowance from a key cooking staple.
Vitamin D, which helps to control the amount of calcium and phosphate in our bodies, is found naturally in a small number of foods including oily fish, red meat, egg yolks and mushrooms.
It is also naturally created in our bodies when exposed to sunshine.
Updated advice from Public Health England in July said that “in spring and summer, the majority of the population get enough vitamin D through sunlight on the skin and a healthy, balanced diet. During autumn and winter, everyone will need to rely on dietary sources of vitamin D.”
Vitacress
Vitacress, the UK’s leading fresh herb producer, has invested £4.5 million in a new herb facility at its Chichester site to create the biggest single pot herb growing unit in the UK.
The state-of-the-art facility consists of five hectares of production space, with an additional refrigerated packing area to ensure all pots are packed in a cool chain environment.
Harvested plants are now pre-cooled in a 1,600 sq m temperature-controlled chamber, which has been fitted with 50µmol per sec fully variable LED crop lighting, with each light fitting able to provide either four individual wavelengths of light or a mixture of all four to maximise the shelf life of all herb crops.
The latest generation of pot handling robotics ensure optimum seed planting and pot spacing with a tailor-made ebb and flood bench system providing better controls over the internal environment.
All water applied as irrigation to plants is now computer controlled and any waste water recirculated back into the growing system.
Investment in energy conservation screening has also improved costs and sustainability.
The latest environmental control system has been fitted providing state-of-the-art control of all internal climate factors while maximising energy savings through management of the main energy supply plant.
All of these investments have resulted in more efficient herb production, better shelf life, less road miles and energy savings.
No comments yet