There was too much to cover in last week's Journal, so this week The English Apple Man adds more stories from the 2107 National Fruit Show...
There is always lots of new shiny equipment to drool over (boys toys!) at the show.
Tractors are always a big attraction and displayed on the N.P.Seymour stand a Fendt Tractor from 1984 signifying the first Fendt sold by Nick Seymour in 1984. Fortuitously he English Apple Man bought one then at circa £12,000..........todays Fendt with ProbotIQ driverless system is circa £110,000 + depending on exchange rate....
Below: 1984 Fendt Tractor
Below: 'State of the art' latest Fendt Technology
Visit N P Seymour for more information
In keeping with reducing dependency on harvest workers in the face of the lack of a clear Government policy on immigration, any means of reducing labour is being utilised. Chris Baker owner of Bourne Engineering has received orders for his BILLO picking platforms which have a flexibility allowing use for harvesting and other orchard management tasks.
Below: Chris Baker of Bourne Engineering with the latest BILLO platform based harvesting equipment
To see more - visit Bourne Engineering
Its important to encourage more young people to enter the fruit industry - David Bradley is on track with his son joining him on 'the podium' as he collects a trophy at he NFS.
Below: left; NIAB/EMR personnel at the show and right; Avalon Produce Ltd 's Michael Joyles is looking forward to a successful season.....
Visit NFS sponsor Avalon Produce Ltd
A new robotic tray packer which drew much attention from visitors to the NFS The English Apple Man was the prototype GREEFA Smartpackr TM: this robot packs loose fruit onto the card trays with a precision which leaves all fruit correctly orientated. The cost; circa £250,000 but in a busy packhouse the investment will be repaid in 3 years.
Below; the prototype Greefa Smartpackr TM
For more information; click on SMARTPACKR
Kent Fruit Services commented: The Smartpacker was a big draw, with the ingenius robot running causing quite a stir at the exhibition; no passer-by could resist taking a look! We hope to see a few operational in UK packhouses over the course of next year!
To see the Smartpackr on YouTube; click on Smartpacker Video
After a very hectic few weeks, The English Apple Man was able to catch up on tasks 'sidelined' by previous activity....but on Thursday an invitation to the third international Workshop on Canker and Apple Replant Disease held at NIAB/EMR which proved very worthwhile...The EAM spent the afternoon listening to presentations by international researchers, primarily dealing with Canker research.......
The workshop ran over three days and the attendees were members of the International Consortium.
Canker is a global problem and the importance of collaborative scientific research cannot be overstated.
The information is confidential to the International Consortium, but in the course of time we will benefit from the collaborative science.........
For a better understanding of the threat Canker poses click on The English Apple Man Journal for 10th February 2017
Take care
That is all for this week...........
Take care
The English Apple Man