Tag Archives: continuous improvement

Automation

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Not too long after the website launched, we talked about one of the toughest tasks on the place: monitoring frost conditions. As we explained back then, one of the toughest things cranberry growers do is managing springtime frost conditions. In the spring, there is a danger to the crop when the temperature drops. Typically, a cranberry bog is built at a lower level than the land immediately surrounding it and the bog temperature can drop ten to fifteen degrees lower than the uplands. These conditions make monitoring bog temperature a top priority once the winter water comes off. It’s no exaggeration to say there would be no crop if we didn’t watch for frost on the bogs.

It’s demanding work that takes a lot out of our frost crew every year, so we’re always trying to find ways to improve the process. This year, we are launching phase one of an automation process that will hopefully increase efficiency and reduce strain on our team! COO Bryan vonHahmann explains: “We all sat down and looked at some of the things we’d done in the past with weather stations and the like. After discussing the successes and failures, we knew what we did and didn’t want. We spent time talking to producers and basically entertained two options: design and build a system ourselves, or go with an outside firm.” Eventually, the team settled on an outside firm and hired Joe Lord, from Wisconsin. Joe and his team built a lot of the equipment and staged it for us, then hauled it from Wisconsin and have been here deploying for the past week. “We’re going to have seven pumps automated, then based on the success of those, we’ll add another thirty every year for the next three years,” Bryan says. “We currently have forty probes scheduled for thermometers and tensiometers, and will be deploying all probes tomorrow. The pumps are online, we have permits for two 100-foot towers to boost communications, and the team will have the ability to check remotely via iPad.”

The rest of the team can’t wait to see the results. “Automated thermometers for frost is going to be exciting for us,” says PIICM Manager Cristina Tassone. “Each year we put out around seventy or more orchard thermometers around the farm for the guys to get out of their trucks and check while they are monitoring temperatures for frost. Having the automation will help us save them from always having to do that, and it will also cut down on actual time having to monitor the thermometers. A couple guys won’t need to come out early to check temperatures; Gerardo can watch the computer screen and when an area gets close to his ‘go’ temp, he can send his crew out.” Automated tensiometers are also going to save a lot of time for travel and labor. “We install about twenty-five tensiometers each year around the farm. It takes one person the whole morning to travel to each tensiometer and record the readings, then they report the readings to the managers who need to use the data to make water management decisions. Having the automated sensors will help enormously, and will allow us to make better decisions in a timely manner.” The team will still check the tensiometers physically every couple weeks for maintenance, however.

By all accounts, Joe Lord and his crew have been phenomenal to work with, highly attentive to our needs and working round the clock to help make this as efficient as possible for us. Facilities Supervisor Mike Guest is more than willing to meet them halfway: “Anything they need, I’m here to support them. If there are parts they need, it’s better for them if we run to get them, especially with them being so far from home. They’re great guys. I knew just from talking to them on the phone that they’d be great to work with.”

Rutgers Haines™ Variety

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Some exciting recent news from the research side of the cranberry industry: Rutgers has released their latest variety, named for the late Bill Haines, Sr.

From the release:

The Haines™ Cranberry Variety…resulted from a 1999 cross between the Crimson Queen® variety as the seed parent and #35 as the pollen parent. The #35 variety is an unpatented variety from a ‘Howes x Searles’ cross from the 1940s USDA/NJAES Cranberry Breeding Program. Haines variety was one of 138 progeny of this 1999 cross, made at the Philip E. Marucci Center for Cranberry Research in Chatsworth, NJ. Haines variety was initially selected for its very high yield potential, mid-season ripening, large round berry (averaging about two grams per berry) and uniform fruit color. In 2007, the Haines variety was selected for further testing in advanced replication selection trials in Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. The plots continued to exhibit the variety’s consistent high yields with mid-season ripening. Haines has also exhibited less fruit rot than Stevens in these plots.

Dr. Nick Vorsa of Rutgers explains: “Prior to Integrity Propagation and the diligence of Abbot Lee in DNA fingerprinting and virus indexing with Rutgers varieties, there was little or no effort for cranberry propagators to sell vines of 100% purity of a variety and there was little assurance that a grower purchasing prunings, mowings, or plants of a variety were ‘true-to-type’, nor the level of ‘off-type’ contamination.”

Part of the reason behind the decision to name the new variety for Bill Sr, Nick says, is that Bill generously offered beds for the early Rutgers cranberry breeding program: “He greatly enjoyed walking the Rutgers breeding plots on the bed and observing the performance of over 1,600 plots.” As the release says, “[e]mbracing new technology was a priority for Bill”; he never took anything for granted and was always looking for ways to improve the crop not just for his own farm, but for his fellow growers as well.

Integrity Propagation has been working with Rutgers for several years to develop Haines stock and is currently taking orders for 2016. We look forward to seeing the results!

Gate installation

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Renovation on some of the bogs in the Black Rock system is going well! Last week we spoke briefly again about Pine Island’s #1 question: “where is the water coming from, and where do we want it to go?” This week, our team addressed that question by starting the removal of wooden floodgates and replacing them with our newer PVC gate design.

Longtime team member Wilfredo Pagan (35 years!) is in charge of this operation, which is going very smoothly considering the unexpected weather. “Pipe gates are better,” he says. “They’re easier to install, and they last longer, too.” First, though, he has to set up the laser level in order to make sure the gate is set up correctly. The team will be able to put the new gate in at the same depth as the old one. This is where they have to be careful; if it’s not even the two parts of the new gate can shift over time since they’re not one solid piece of pipe. “Once you put them together, the only thing holding them is dirt and pressure,” Wilfredo says. “If you have a situation where the canal is deeper than the ditch, you have to measure at the top of the dam and set it so the uprights are level with it. If the canal is lower than bog and you don’t adjust for it, it can wash out underneath.”

In the meantime, Junior Colon has been on the excavator making sure the water’s been blocked off in both the canal and the ditches. “Once that’s blocked off, we can start digging,” he says.

After the water is stopped, it’s time to start digging up the dam. “We go right down to the top of the boards on the old gate,” says Junior, “and then we have to continue to dig behind it to get the turf out and make sure the water’s all gone.”

Once the excavator clears out the dirt around the old gate, it’s time to lift each side one at a time to put the chains on for easier lifting.

The old gate then gets lifted onto a waiting tractor and hauled away.

Once the new gate is installed, the team will fill the dirt back and then haul in turf to patch the sides before crowning the dam and moving on to the next gate!

Turf renovation

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Winter is here, and our team is staying on task: the water is on, sanding has begun, and bog renovation continues!

CEO Bill Haines said earlier this year: “We’ve known that the Early Blacks are our weakest variety and eventually need to be entirely replaced, and decided to become more aggressive about it. By 2022, we’ve targeted 769 acres of Early Blacks to be replaced with hybrid varieties.” He also pointed out some results already taking place at Panama, finished in 2012. “We’ve already had a lot of great fruit after only two growing seasons,” he said. And Panama #6 had a record crop this year.

One of the more involved renovation projects this year is at Turf bog, across the street from our main office. First, we built a new end dam roadside in order to keep water from creeping near the road at harvest time. Our team has also removed a center dam, are moving gates, and will be relocating a pump house, all in order to improve our water management. Remember, the key to this business is where the water is coming from, and where we want it to go! And since the team is there digging already, they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to remove the main line in preparation for upgrading the irrigation system.

GM Fred Torres says: “Bryan [COO Bryan vonHahmann] sat down and calculated how much of the center dam we needed to take out to make the bogs at Turf one bog, and now we’re using that to build the base for the pump house. Relocating the pump house is going to improve efficiency a lot. Building it this way also has the advantage of killing two birds with one stone: since we decided to get rid of the dam in the middle, we can reuse it elsewhere and save ourselves some hauling time.” We are also able to use some of it at the Black Rock renovation, where we will also be enlarging the pump house bases. “The pump houses are going to be be replaced, with new fuel tanks on the outside,” Fred says. “”So they’re going to need more support.”

Another time-saver has been the addition of two more Hydremas: “They are going where other dump trucks can’t, as well as doing it twice as fast,” says Bryan. The Hydremas can carry twice as much, which means our already highly skilled drivers (Rick Zapata, Blondie Cruz-Rodriguez, and Caesar Colon) can get the job done in short order!

When it’s ready for planting, we’ll be using Mullica Queen again, which is one of the new Rutgers varieties (a later variety that gets picked toward the end of the season) and has a very high yield potential. But we’ll be checking back on how the team is progressing before then!

Improving equipment

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Last month, we talked with Assistant Manager Mike Haines about drainage repair and the opportunities it gave us for collaboration with our fellow growers. “The cranberry community isn’t so huge that businesses will make equipment especially marketed to us,” Mike said at the time. “A lot of what we do is done by working together to improve what we have.”

While we’d been borrowing the current set-up from fellow grower (and fantastic neighbor) Bill Cutts, our equipment team started working on building one of our own, making improvements based on team recommendations. This week, equipment team member Fred Henschel is nearly finished!

“This machine does everything,” Fred says. “It holds the rolls of 2-inch underdrain, it works with either a skid steer or a tractor with a three-point hitch…it’s been designed to fit just about everything we have on the property. Whatever is available.” He also designed it with some flexibility in mind. “It was designed based on input from the guys who will be using it, but if for some reason they really don’t like it, the entire center implement can be unbolted and I can place it on a different frame. It’s a prototype; nothing like this had been built before, as far as I know, so I can remake it until everyone’s happy with it.”

The entire machine was designed to be as efficient as possible. Fred looked at how the machine was cutting vines and decided he wanted as sharp an angle as he could get so it wouldn’t push the vines out as far; at that point, the roller would be able to pack the dirt right back down again. Having the spools right on the machine should also increase the speed. “What they can do is tow the trailer with all the rolls, put two on the machine, and keep going. Probably be able to go at three or four times the speed.” He’s also made some modifications for tools. “The basket here is for their tape and their knives, in case they need to add more pipe. This way they can take care of it right there and keep going.” As for changing out the rolls, he attached spinner handles for everything so nothing needs a tool to unfasten.

While the water is on the bogs for the winter, our equipment team is looking forward to seeing how the new machine works in the spring; we’ll be checking back then!

Drainage repair

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The harvest is in, and our winter projects have begun! This week, team members have started installing new underdrain in preparation for the winter flood. As we have discussed here before, drainage is a key element in Pine Island Cranberry’s water management program. In addition to having irrigation systems that reduce water usage, well-drained soil is necessary to keep a bog’s root system functional. Beds should be designed for adequate drainage, which is essential for good root development and aeration as well as prevention of conditions that can lead to the presence of Phytophthora, which causes fruit rot and root rot. Previous underdrain repairs have used 4-inch pipe, but thanks to grower-neighbor Bill Cutts, we are working with 2-inch pipe instead.

“Bill talked about this at the ACGA summer field day a little bit,” says Assistant Manager Mike Haines. “The smaller size should make it easier for repairs, and installing it isn’t nearly as hard on the vines, which is great.” However, there was a bit of prep to take care of first. “There were several patches with just weeds growing; rushes like swampy areas, Dad says. If you see rushes growing in a bog, it’s too wet for berries. So Kelvin had a crew out here hoeing all the weeds, and then they added sand to make the spots level with rest of bog. One reason for standing water could be that the bog’s out of level, acting like a bowl, and the water just collects. So taking out those weeds and leveling things off might help.”

Our team worked a little with Bill over the summer to try things out, but this is the first big project installing the new underdrain. “According to Bill, this should all be filled in by the summer, and we wont even be able to see where we’ve added it,” says Mike. “We have the laser here so when Caesar is on the tractor he can make sure everything stays level. It’s been a learning experience, figuring out how deep it needs to go. The original underdrain is 16 inches below the surface, but the water can’t go that far and we end up with it standing on top. That’s why we’re redoing Panama 1 through 4, in fact. Every 13 feet 4 inches we’re putting in the new stuff; it’s better to err on the side of too much!”

It’s also an excellent opportunity to collaborate with fellow growers. “Bill said it’s been working well for him,” Mike says. “But he keeps checking back to see how we’ve been doing and if we’ve had any ideas for alterations or improvements.” Our team is constantly evaluating conditions and practices in ways that ensure both better decision making and optimal production. To that end, while we’ve been borrowing this tractor from Bill, the equipment team is working on building one of our own, making improvements based on team recommendations. “The cranberry community isn’t so huge that businesses will make equipment especially marketed to us,” Mike says. “A lot of what we do is done by working together to improve what we have.”

Season’s End

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Another year, another excellent harvest!

“A lot of good news this year,” says GM Fred Torres. “We broke records on all kinds of bogs this year: new bogs, old bogs, big ones, small ones. The berries were smaller this year, which means less weight and fewer barrels, but even with that we were able to increase the number of berries per acre we grew this year. That’s just fantastic.” A cooler August this year meant smaller fruit. “The berries need some heat in August,” he says. “But we had cooler temperatures this year than we normally do, which starts the color a little earlier and means they’re not going to grow anymore. But we’re still really happy with the crop; we can’t control the weather, but we did everything else we had to do when we had to do it and still brought in an average of over 236 barrels per acre. We can be proud of that.”

Another big triumph this year was the success of the Gates Harrow. “We’re very pleased with Gates Harrow and the time that it takes to do a bog,” Fred says. “Not rushing, just setting the normal pace the machine needs to run. And it picks clean.” The learning curve was a little steep at first, as you would expect. Team member Mickey Mercado had to learn how to move the ramps around as well as set them up for the machine; it has to be right so the tractor can easily turn around with as little overlap as possible. Fred says they got it down to a science: “By the end of the season, Rick [Zapata] couldn’t catch him. He would get to the end, and Mickey would be waiting already. If the guy on the tractor slows down, it’s going to slow down the guy who’s picking. At no time did Rick have to stop because he had to wait for Mickey. They both did really well.” Team members Joel DeJesus and Caesar Colon also put in some time on the new equipment, so when we eventually add another, we’ll have team members who are ready.

We also found out that we can run two crews with one Gates Harrow. “We have to manage the time well, but it can be done,” Fred says. During that particular experiment, the team members usually assigned to the smaller machines were able to do work elsewhere (such as bog clean-up after harvesting), making it an efficient use of time.

Best of all, everyone worked really well together. It can be tough; the crews are out there seven days a week for five weeks, and everyone gets tired toward the end. But we had a strong finish! “We set our target to finish by the end of the month, and we did,” says Fred. “We were done before the weekend and it was great! The weather was good, too. We had the one rough day, which was a little chilly with a lot of rain, but other than that it was good.” And we’re already using the season as a learning experience. “We’re always looking for ways to improve on the good stuff we already have: we have a great team, we have great equipment, but we can always challenge ourselves to do better. We know we can grow ‘em; we did it this year. But we have a lot of work to do this winter, and at the end of it, we’re going to come out of it working more efficiently than we ever have.”

Green Team – Gathering

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Pine Island Cranberry’s harvest teams kicked into high gear this week, and our Green Team was out at our Warehouse bogs for the last time before their upcoming 2015 renovation! CEO Bill Haines outlined the upcoming renovation plans back in August: “We’ve known that the Early Blacks are our weakest variety and eventually need to be entirely replaced, and decided to become more aggressive about it. By 2022, we’ve targeted 769 acres to replace Early Blacks with hybrid varieties, and we’re going to do it by using some of the same techniques they use in Wisconsin.” He points out some of results already taking place at Panama, finished in 2012. “We already had a lot of great fruit after only two growing seasons,” he says. “In 2013, we had nearly 218 barrels to the acre in Panama #6. This year, we had 493 barrels to the acre. That’s the direction we want to be going.”

In the meantime, our team was doing whatever it takes to make sure the final Warehouse harvest was completed quickly and efficiently, just as they always do!

Team member Bob Heritage was hauling to the packing house for the Green Team this week, one of the many tasks he has performed over the last thirty-four years he’s been with us. A former dairy farmer, Bob says, “I told Bill when I started, I don’t know anything about cranberries…but if there’s a cow in the bog I can get her out!” Fortunately, we’ve never had to deal with that issue, but Bob has proven over and over again his drive to learn and his willingness to do what he has to do when it’s time to do it. “I’ve done just about everything,” Bob says. “I’ve worked frost, renovation…but cranberry season is my favorite part. You get to see what you’ve been working toward all year, and it’s beautiful to look at, besides.”

Bog renovation manager Joe Colon has nothing but good things to say about Bob. “He’s a hard worker,” Joe says. “And he never complains. If you tell him he needs to do something that he’s never done before, he’s not afraid or worried. He learns it, and tries to figure out ways to make it even better.”

While Bob is pondering retirement, he’s not quite ready to go yet: “When I first started here, we were building the bogs at Black Rock. Now [along with Warehouse] they’re on the schedule to be renovated next year. I’ll get to see the entire cycle. There’s not many people who can say that.”

Gates Harrow

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We mentioned a few weeks ago that our equipment team was working on a new machine for our harvest season. The Gates Harrow is the latest addition to our equipment program and everyone is very excited to try it come harvest time. “It’s much less labor intensive,” said manager Louis Cantafio at the time. “We typically run a six man picking crew and their target is about 12.5 acres per day. On a more level set of bogs, they can do more than that, but with a Gates Harrow we’ve seen a two-man crew get through 40 acres. It’s a lot more efficient.”

The Gates Harrow is a simple machine set up to cover more ground. At the front is a rod which holds vines down to the ground; as the tractor moves forward, the berries pop off the stems and roll up over the tines on the rake.

It’s not as hard on the plants as our usual method, and our renovation program is geared for increased efficiency by being user-friendly for equipment like this. Team supervisor Jeremy Fenstermaker thinks there are several advantages to the new equipment: “The biggest advantage is labor. It also picks a lot cleaner; it knocks almost everything off the vines. With the standard reels you’ll still find some berries left here and there. There’s also some fuel savings with just one tractor running.” While the machine uses less water for picking than the reels, the bogs still require additonal flooding for gathering, which is still done in the usual way. “Adding water isn’t a problem,” Jeremy says. “If you figure out timing it works out fine. As long as Rick [Zapata] is ahead it’s not that big a deal.” Another advantage: “The fruit is ‘cleaner’ as far as debris: fewer weeds, vines, twigs, all that kind of thing. Which means Mike can get fruit out faster at the packing house because his crew can process it faster.”

CEO Bill Haines is pleased with how things are turning out: “It’s been a steep learning curve, but I’m encouraged by the outcome,” he says. “Jeremy, Rick, and Mickey [Mercado] have done a great job learning the best way to use it. Every day is going a little better; I’m very pleased with the results.”

Interested in seeing the machine in action up close? Watch as team leader Rick Zapata takes us on a brief tour around the bog:

GoPro Gates Harrow from Pine Island Cranberry on Vimeo.

Equipment program: Hydrema

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Pine Island Cranberry prides itself on efficiency, and both our hard-working team and our equipment program reflect that. To that end, our equipment program recently started test-driving a Hydrema for hauling.

“We got the Hydrema about a week ago and we’ve been running it hard ever since,” says equipment team member Coco Mercado. “Joe [Colon, Bog Renovations Manager] has been out there on it just about every day.” He was working yesterday to remove the hitch, as it’s heavy enough to do some of our major towing as well. “We used it to bring the sand screener out and I got to drive it back; it handles like a Cadillac!”

Equipment supervisor Carlos Baez is impressed as well. “There are a lot of tight turns on the bogs,” he says. “In a regular dump truck, you really have to work it. But the Hydrema is articulated, so it’s easier to make turns or back up to the sandbox. And the tires are big enough to keep it from wearing deep ruts in the dams or getting stuck in soft sand.”

The Hydrema can also take double the load that a dump truck can carry. “It moves a little slower, but we can load seven buckets as opposed to the 3.5 we can get in the regular dump truck,” Carlos says. “That’s still the equivalent of two loads, even taking the slower speed into account.” Our demo model also has the “multi-tip option”, which means we can drop sand from the right side or the left side in addition to the back. This is an highly useful option in many of our typical tasks, such as sanding and bog renovation.

But the ultimate review might be from our bog renovation manager. Though he was working on another project and was unavailable to comment, he’s been keeping the equipment team updated. “Joe loves it,” Carlos says. “And you know Joe doesn’t hold back.” COO Bryan vonHahmann concurs: “Joe was skeptical at first, but he’s been the primary driver ever since!”