A farm walk was held at the farm of Mr Shaun McGonagle, Glenside Mushrooms, Redcastle, Co.Donegal on September 25th. The objective of the farm walk was to view the latest machine for cutting, grading and packing mushrooms for punnets.
Shaun had tried the new machine for two days and as he explained he was very surprised at the rate of picking that could be achieved. His picker recorded substantial gains – he went from 42lbs to 106lbs an hour, and that was with only 2 hours training. That's an increase of 150% ! Shaun has no doubt that a picker could achieve 150lbs per hour.
The main advantage of the machine, according to Shaun, was the minimization of waste – stem lengths were correct, maximum size in each punnet and weights were accurate. The machine is also computerised for reading weight picked and hours worked – a quare "yoke" indeed.
About thirty growers attended the farm walk and all were impressed with the machine. Margaret Ann O'Reilly, from Monaghan Mushrooms, who attended the demonstration, expressed her view that the machine would be a great benefit to punnet growers and large farms.
Stalker would reckon that it won't be long before we see this new fangled machine harvesting in Donegal.
For more details about this extraordinary "yoke" contact: Axis Systems Ltd 39 Hunters Hill Road Gilford, Co. Down BT63 6AL Tel:+44 (0) 2838831799 Fax:+44 (0) 2838831884
