Category Archives: General

Sanding wrap-up

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In our efforts to make us better at what we do as well as improve our efficiency, our team holds occasional meetings to bring everyone up to speed. “We talk about what we’ve just finished, what’s going on next, what our goals are,” says GM Fred Torres. “This way everyone’s on the same page. We’ve had a lot of bad weather, so we’ve been constantly re-evaluating the plans; we’ve struggled with that all winter. But the new boxes are 40% done. 20% of the sprinklers are already in. We’re doing what we need to do.”

PIICM manager Cristina Tassone has also been keeping her team busy. “The ICM offices are almost ready,” she says. “The ICM team’s been putting together furniture and we’re just about ready to move in!” She also told the team to keep an eye out for new faces. “We’re in the middle of the interview process for some open positions, so some of the candidates have been here for farm tours.”

Best of all, though, is that our team has finished this year’s sanding!

Supervisor Matt Giberson headed up the sanding team this year, and was pleased with the outcome. “The weather made it tough, but even with that things went well,” he says. “I was very pleased with how everything turned out. We sanded almost 215 acres over the course of 21 non-consecutive days, averaging 107 machine loads per crew.”

“The shop did a really great job with equipment maintenance,” Matt says. “We had no breakdowns that required shutting a crew down; there were some minor events that we fixed ourselves and only a couple of things where we needed to call for the equipment team.” He was also pleased at some of the new equipment. “The sanding box, on average, saves us about ten percent of the sand, and we actually move at a faster pace with it. That saves us from cleaning ditches in the spring, wasting sand on the dams, and extra work with dredging, screening, and hauling. It takes a little longer to move from one side of the bog to the other, but the team has been brainstorming solutions that should help us improve on that next year.”

MFS: Pine Barrens Intensive Learning

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This week, Pine Island Cranberry was very pleased to host a group of students from Moorestown Friends on their week-long Pine Barrens Intensive Learning experience. Per the MFS website, this particular IL unit provides student with the chance “to learn the unique history and culture of the nearby ‘Pinelands,’ the first National Reserve created by Congress. The area has also been designated by the United Nations as an International Biosphere Reserve. We will spend time hiking and exploring the forest as well as learning about the intriguing history of the area, including the Jersey Devil and the indigenous ‘Piney’ population.”

The morning started with a presentation by CEO Bill Haines on the history of the farm and some of the changes that have been made throughout the years. He spoke of the generations who came before and how each successive generation has since made its own mark. He explained why cranberries and blueberries are so essential to the Pine Barrens: because the growers understand the need for an abundant supply of clean water. “The key thing to know about this farm and this industry is the water supply,” he says. “Where does it come from, and where do we want it to go? And we’re fortunate that we have the opportunity to be here and to do that, because we understand that we need to protect all the resources here if we want to remain in business.”

Bill then introduced PIICM manager Cristina Tassone, who started out with us as an intern seven years ago and now this year is making all the major crop decisions. Cristina’s presentation mentioned how her position is analogous to that of a parent: her job is essentially to be the caregiver of the crop. She also included the basic life cycle of a cranberry bog, starting with an explanation of sanding and why it works.

“Once the water comes off, we have an eight-member ICM team that’s in those bogs every day,” Cristina says. “All season long we’re walking in the bogs, checking to see what they need. We currently grow nine different varieties that require different management strategies due to growth stage, color of leaves, disease, and pest issues.”

The group was surprised by some of the water management aspects, particularly the layout and how the bogs were interconnected via gates. They also asked some great questions about sustainability and the effect of cranberry farming on the water supply. And a lot of them enjoyed the next part of the presentation, which involved taking them out to a bog that has recently been drained in order to install sprinklers.

For their part, the students were able to tie in what they learned from us–the importance of clean water and sandy acidic soil–with other visits around the Pines this week, and got confirmation on the low impact of cranberry harvesting on the Pine Barrens ecosystem from their next stop at Pakim Pond.

“It was great to have them out here,” says Cristina. “I absolutely love talking about what we do; it really is a unique opportunity to do this work on this scale. It’s fantastic for us, to be a local business with such deep roots available to educate as well as give students the chance to have a better understanding of what it takes to grow cranberries, not just assume we walk around in waders all day like the commercials. And it’s important to share the opportunities we have to offer as a future career possibility.”

Another year in!

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Two years ago this week, Pine Island Cranberry launched picranberry.com in order to show people who we are and what we do, and it’s been going strong ever since. While we spent the first year giving an overview of what happens on a cranberry farm, we tried to spend the second year digging a little deeper.

This year hasn’t been quite as eventful as 2012 (and we’re grateful for it) but this winter has provided its own set of challenges!

In addition, we completed the renovation at the Oswego system:

And started harvesting at Panama!:

We then turned our attention to the latest renovation target at 11 Acre and Benny’s:

And, of course, spent a lot of time with some of the hardest-working people in the world. None of this would be possible without the fantastic team we’ve assembled.

Last but not least, we finished yet another successful harvest!

Pine Island Cranberry is fortunate to have such a phenomenal team doing whatever it takes to do everything they do better every day, up to and including using the latest technology. We grow stuff…it’s what we do and who we are. And if you enjoy reading about it even half as much as we enjoy doing it, then we have been successful!

Scraper

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It’s been a tough winter at Pine Island Cranberry (and almost everywhere else), which has done a number on our dams. On a cranberry farm, dams serve two purposes: to detain the water used for irrigation and water management, and for vehicle use. Dam maintenance is highly important for both safety and equipment. Most of the year, our team will “scrape” the dams as necessary in order to save wear and tear on equipment. Then, in the spring, we target the ones that need crowning.

Until this year, the process to scrape crowned dams was completed by a dozer, which meant each dam had to be gone over twice, just to make sure the crown was not scraped off. This year we decided to maximize our efficiency and commissioned Hollyford Enterprises in Hainesport to build us a new scraper to use on crowned dams. In addition, we’d like to modify it for land-leveling in renovation projects. Owner Bob Shinn based the design off our current scraper and made some adjustments for both flexibility and durability. “It turned out to be a bigger project than I expected,” Bob says, “but the final result is meaningful.”

This week, team member Ivan Burgos took the scraper out for a test run!

He towed it up to the top of the Black Rock system in order to see how it handled and to test some of the new features Bob had designed.

GM Fred Torres says, “We wanted to check for any adjustments that might need to be made to the hydraulics as well as testing it on different types of gravel. It went through both the soft sand at Black Rock and the harder gravel up at Jonathan Wright without any issues. The adjustable extensions on the back are fantastic for scraping the wider dams and will save us time and money when we start crowning later in the year.” The extensions are going to be very useful; they can be extended to cover the widest possible area, then pulled in when going through a gate or driving on a dam lined by utility poles and no one will have to swerve around the obstacle or double back to get the edge. And it’s pretty cool to watch!

“It’s pretty easy to run,” Ivan says. “You just have to be careful and remember to pull the extensions back in. That might take some getting used to!”

Boxes

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This week at Pine Island Cranberry we’re about ready for winter’s end, pretty as it is.

While our team continues to work on sanding when the weather permits, we have started another project as well: making boxes. As Facilities supervisor Mike Guest explains: “As we grow, our needs grow. As more berries come in, we’re going to need more boxes.” We have two hundred now, and our team is building another fifty. While we try to keep them in constant rotation, it helps to have a sizable reserve in order to keep moving as efficiently as possible, especially at the Sim Place platform.

“A few years back, we built those first two hundred boxes and we built them bigger; they hold fifty percent more than the ones we used to use,” says GM Fred Torres. “But we’re always looking for ways to get better. Now, with the renovations we’ve been doing at Sim Place and at the Oswego section, we’re looking to improve even more.” We’re doing that by starting to widen more dams at Panama and on parts of the home farm (mainly toward the southern end) in order to bring more tractor trailers in for hauling.

“It’s all in the name of efficiency,” says Fred. “Two tractor trailers together can carry eighteen boxes; that’s nine dump truck loads. It saves wear and tear on the dump trucks, it frees up some of the guys whose skills we can use elsewhere, and it helps us haul berries a lot more quickly.” So the plan is to get at least two more tractor trailers, eliminating the need for so many small trucks, and try to strike a balance. In order to make the hauling easier for the trailer drivers, we will be widening dams and turns at Red Road and several of the bogs by the Jonathan Wright reservoir. “That way we can haul and load right from the corners of those bogs,” says Fred. “It’ll be a sight, all those big trucks coming out of the woods!”

But before that, the boxes need to be finished, and various members of our team are doing whatever it takes to help get them done!

Sandbox

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The ongoing project at Pine Island Cranberry this week continues to be sanding, and the winter weather has continued to give our sanding team some challenges. While there hasn’t been much snow, the cold can still cause problems.

GM Fred Torres explains: “It was less than 25 degrees the other morning; that’s cold! When we started digging, there was a crust on the mound of sand; as you dig, you have to try to get that off and then start digging into the mound itself. It mostly works, but some of those clumps inevitably roll down and it’s so cold they don’t break up. Some go into the bucket, some get into truck, and from there some get into the sander. We try to take them out as we see them, but it’s inefficient for everyone.” Team member Jorge Morales tried out the GoPro this week to help demonstrate the issue. (Left unanswered is why he feels the need to wear Dallas Cowboys gear in Eagles country, but perhaps that’s better for all concerned.)

GoPro – Jorge from Pine Island Cranberry on Vimeo.

Things improved after lunch as the temperature went up into the thirties, but as Fred says, “You have to sand when it’s time to sand; you can’t wait for perfect weather to do what needs to be done.”

One thing that’s been a tremendous help to our team is the new sandbox. Built by our equipment team, the sandbox was designed to improve efficiency and reduce waste. In previous years, trucks would back up to the location and just drop sand directly onto the dam. “We figured out that dropping sand directly causes us to lose at least ten percent of it,” says Fred. “That means for every ten truckloads you lose at least one. That’s a lot. But with the box, we don’t lose anything and we’re able to use our time more efficiently; we can get a lot more done. The box keeps everything contained; we don’t lose anything and it’s easier to clean up.”

You can see from Joel DeJesus’ point of view how much easier it is, as well:

GoPro – Excavator from Pine Island Cranberry on Vimeo.

With both teamwork and technology, our team continues to be highly efficient no matter what the weather!

PIC History: Floater Building

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Pine Island’s facilities team is continuing to improve the shop area by moving on to the next step in our facilities improvement plan: removing the now obsolete “floater building” to make room for employee and visitor parking. The floater building has a long history: back in the 50s, before growers started adopting wet harvesting methods, most cranberries were harvested for the fresh fruit market. Even then Pine Island (then known as Haines & Haines) was concerned with efficiency and waste. “We always had a good team,” says CEO Bill Haines, “but no matter how good our scoopers were, a large percentage of fruit would fall through that we couldn’t access, and that drove my dad crazy.” Once the dry harvest was done, as now, the bogs would be flooded for the winter. Bill Sr. got some flat bottom boats similar to the Everglades airboats, and once the bogs were flooded, he would take the boat out onto the bog. The wash from the boat would shake the berries loose, causing them to float to the surface. The “floaters”, as they were called, were unsuitable to be sold as fresh fruit, and needed to be processed differently. In order to do that, Bill Sr. put up the “floater building”. Eventually, as wet harvesting became more widespread, processing the harvest shifted entirely over to the packing house, and the floater building became storage instead.

It’s a little sad to see the floater building go; it holds a lot of memories for some of our more long-term team members. “It used to be where we gathered first thing in the morning to go over the day’s assignments,” says GM Fred Torres. “It was always the same: Bill Sr. would walk in from his house, saying good morning to everyone, and Bill Jr. would have his binder open on the hood of his truck. Now it’s Bill Jr. coming in and I’m the one with papers on the hood of my truck.”

It was necessary to make some changes, though. “The building wasn’t originally intended for storage, which is what we’d ended up doing with it,” says Facilities manager Louis Cantafio. “The new storage building we’ve put up is a little more spacious, with better lighting and easier access. Plus with the newer shop building and the old office being converted into our new ICM [Integrated Crop Management] facility, we had a shortage of parking for both employees and visitors. Now, we’ll be more efficient, with more contemporary storage as well as improving traffic patterns with better parking for our staff. Plus, it will be easier for the big trucks going in and out.”

The demolition process was also a chance to test some of our newest equipment. Pine Island recently purchased a GoPro camera for training use. “It’s a great opportunity for new team members to see what fairy ring looks like, as well as pest or frost damage,” explains PIICM manager Cristina Tassone. “It’ll also be great for equipment training, so Junior [Colon] volunteered to test it for us!” The following video was taken while Junior was clearing debris from the demolition.

GoPro test – Junior Colon from Pine Island Cranberry on Vimeo.

Cranberry research

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On Wednesday, our Integrated Crop Management (ICM) team had a chance to sit down with Dr. Peter Oudemans and graduate student Tim Waller of Rutgers University to hear about Tim’s research on the window for fruit rot control. Tim, who earned his undergrad degree in Biological Sciences from Rutgers, got his first research experience with blueberries, studying black shadow disease, and began working with cranberries in his graduate program. He previously presented his work at the ACGA Winter Meeting in January where it was well-received.

Peter introduced the presentation with a little bit of background on the study, which was designed to answer some longer term questions such as “Why there is a window for fruit rot pathogens?” and “Why the bloom period is so important and what don’t we know about it?” Tim’s research is also concerned with the factors in the plant that contribute to this window of opportunity, and how growers can use what they find out. (It’s also a cooperative effort: an endowment for this study was provided by the William S. Haines, Sr. Cranberry Research Fund, which was created in his memory to provide research funding that can help growers in the long term.)

Tim split his talk into segments, starting with a short but thorough biology lesson, moving into the experiment structure, and then went on to discuss possible targets for application. He explained the “ideal” environment for fungi, the anatomy of the cranberry blossom, and how fungi use the blossom to cause infection as well as multiplying to cause additional infections. The cup-like structure of the cranberry blossom is perfect for holding water and is therefore a perfect environment for fungal development. The crucial part for us as growers comes down to the timing of application: the time frame on the infection process might be as little as twelve hours during bloom, but there is a latency period, meaning we won’t see rot until September. That twelve hour window becomes our goal: how do growers improve their timing and help eliminate rot?

Tim’s research is just the beginning, of course, but it’s a fantastic opportunity for growers to work with researchers to obtain hard data. PIICM manager Cristina Tassone says, “What Tim is doing is what we’ve been doing ourselves for years; our fungicide program is there and it works, but so much of farming is based on observing what works and continuing to do it. Now we can build a foundation to figure out why. If we can change the climate in the bog…know the variables, the perfect conditions, what needs to happen to keep rot from occurring…we can be proactive instead of reactive and in the process become better growers.”

Ocean Spray Next Wave 2014

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This week at the company headquarters in Massachusetts, the Ocean Spray Cooperative hosted their annual Next Wave class. The Next Wave class is designed for “new growers who have joined the family farm or growers who are taking over their family farm”, and its goal is to help the new growers understand how the business is run on the cooperative end just as they are learning how the business is run on the growing end. This year, Pine Island Cranberry sent assistant manager Michael Haines and webmaster Stefanie Haines (that’s me! Hello!) to learn more about the co-op side of the business.

The winter weather made travel a bit complicated, but even with missing the first morning session, we obtained a great deal of useful information. The good folks at Ocean Spray led us through a history of the co-op, how the cooperative model functions, and how that is integrated with many of the departments within the co-op. The mock Jeopardy game led by the legal department was a highlight, giving us a chance to catch up on what we’d missed and giving everyone else a chance to review earlier sessions.

Most importantly, though, it gave Michael and I a chance to put some faces to names, both for other growers and for the staff at Ocean Spray. “I was familiar with some people just from tagging along with either Dad or Abbott [Lee, of Integrity Propagation],” Michael says, “but this was great because it’s smaller than the Annual Growers Meeting and we’re all mostly starting from the same place.” He also really liked hearing from growers in different regions. “It’s a great chance to widen your horizons. You can get together and talk with people who are trying new or different methods and bring it home to try for yourself.” Some aren’t practical for us, he said, but were just cool to hear about: “Some of the Wisconsin growers were saying the ice is so thick they can just drive trucks onto the bog and sand them that way!”

It was also a fantastic opportunity to see what happens once the fruit leaves the farm and how much has to be done to get the product to the market. Ocean Spray’s very thorough program also showed us a lot about the supply chain, innovation, and marketing, which were all very interesting! “It’s amazing how much more stuff happens,” Mike says. “The first step is leaving the farm, but then they still have to come up with products and how to move fruit.” The real high point for Michael and I, though, was the chance to tour the Middleboro processing facility. Our group was led by plant director Earl Larson, who took us all the way through the process and made it both enjoyable and educational.

In fact, everyone at Ocean Spray was great. Judy Joy and Jeni Francoeur ran an excellent program, as they always do. Everyone was extremely welcoming, and it was well-run from start to finish! We couldn’t have asked for anything better…except for maybe a little less snow.

Ice Sanding

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Pine Island Cranberry has been steadily working on sanding via barge since the winter flood went on last month. Sanding is a fundamental component of our Pine Island Integrated Crop Management (PIICM) program, helping us manage the relationship between water, soil, weather, disease, insects, weeds, and nutrition. This procedure helps improve growth and yield by stimulating the development of new uprights (covering the base of the roots strengthens the root system and creates a more healthy vine) while also suppressing disease and reducing insects (by burying weed seed, spores, and insect eggs). It also improves soil drainage while at the same time absorbing and releasing heat so that frost danger in spring is lessened. This increases our efficiency by lowering the need for extra plant nutrition as well as saving water by cutting down frost irrigation times. This year, it’s been cold enough to attempt sanding via another method: ice sanding.

Most growers typically try ice sanding mid January through mid February, when conditions are cold enough to give them ice that can support the sanding equipment. At Pine Island, that usually means about five inches of ice. Once that happens, we’ll temporarily take the water underneath off the bog while the equipment is on the ice. The method itself is simple: an ice sander (that will spread an even half-inch layer of sand on the ice) is attached to a tractor. When the ice melts the sand will sift into the vines. Once the ice is gone, the sand sinks, covering the runners and giving the vines the benefits mentioned above.

Unfortunately, snow has been hindering this week’s efforts, and while the temperature has been cold enough to form a thick layer of ice, it’s actually been too cold to make ice sanding efficient. “You have to wait for this kind of weather,” says team member Jorge Morales. “It’s been a while since it’s been this cold. Three, four years maybe. We did ice sanding on two bogs at Weymouth and did pretty well over there.”

“We didn’t get enough wind to take the fresh powder off,” says GM Fred Torres. “At some point, you’re pushing the snow around and just spinning your wheels. You’re on the ice and there’s no traction at all. When conditions are good, the ice is covered just like you’re painting it, but with this loose powder it makes for a sloppy job.”

There are also problems with the equipment when the temperature drops into the teens, so Wednesday morning we didn’t even attempt to work outside.

Jorge says wet sand has been an issue as well. “That’s been an ongoing problem even when we were out on the water,” he says. “It’s been so cold that we’ve had problems getting sand through the screener; we’ve just had too much snow.” Fred agrees, but takes a pragmatic view of the delay: “We tried; you have to give it a shot. If the temperature had gotten into the twenties we’d have been okay. But that’s why we always make an alternate plan.”