Pine Island’s 20-Mile March continues. Our 2013 growing season targets are in place: grow 330,000 barrels of cranberries with a 260 barrels per acre average. (As general manager Fred Torres likes to say, “If you don’t set targets, you don’t get things done.”) We adapted and met our sanding targets last month, and now we have set our sights on spring planting, removing the winter flood, and installing the remaining sprinklers.
Our first priority is spring planting. Last week, planting supervisor Kylie Naylor explained how she set our targets: based on our fall average numbers, she set up a spreadsheet to calculate how many plants we would need over how many acres in order set targets for both number of trays per day and number of acres planted per day. Advances in technology have also changed our planting goals: a new mechanical planter, the use of rooted cuttings, and changes in irrigation have all made our bog renovation program boost our targets to new levels, and Kylie has risen to the challenge admirably.
Our target for planting is 2.5 acres per day. So far, our daily average is 2.25 acres per day, but that includes stopping for a really heavy rain (it can be a problem running the machines on very wet soil) and the first day, where we started with only one machine and moved to two after lunch. Without these factors, we are averaging 3 acres per day. Kylie credits this to a very hard working crew, led by foreman Kelvin Colon.
Another priority is taking the water off and installing the remaining sprinklers. Our daily target is to dump the water from five systems and get the sprinklers in, if they were not installed earlier. As the weather warms up and the plants come out of dormancy, we have to worry about frost protection as well, especially for bogs where we took the water off early. The goal is to be finished by April 27th; we are 50% complete as of today.
It’s easy to set targets, but you need to revisit and check outside influences. “You still have to plan for it,” Fred says. “Something always comes up. You don’t just say ‘oh well, we didn’t make it.’ You have to adapt.” Weather is always our biggest influence, but “mostly it works out,” he says. “The work doesn’t stop. You take advantage of the good days, and set targets knowing you’re going to need extra help sometimes.” Today, it was raining too hard to make planting possible, so some of the planting team is hard at work on sprinklers.
A 20-mile March is defined by several characteristics, among them clear performance markers, appropriateness to the enterprise, set within a proper timeframe, and achieved with high consistency. Our team, as always, is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve and improve upon our goals.