Over at Scully Grower Supplies they have been working hard on trying to save the growers some money.

The company has released a new weighing scales for the pickers which is designed to speed up harvesting and make it more profitable.

Owner Neil Scully explains, “We have been working for the last few years on this product the SS-45 traffic light weighing scales. Working alongside Commercial Mushroom Producers in Monaghan we identified a big problem within the industry namely Giveaway and Underweights. The scales that are widely used within the industry here are coming to the end of their production life and when fully examined were not really doing the job that growers need. We sat down with growers including Kieran McKenna, Danny Malanaphy and Monaghan Mushrooms and discussed what the major concerns are of the growers. The main one being that growers are giving away huge amounts of mushrooms by overfilling punnets. 

The traffic light system within the scales is essential in helping both the weights but also helping to speed up the picker. The basic scales were weighing with an increment of 5g which caused a lot of mis-weights of products. The new scales will read at 1g. 

 Each punnet you use will have the desired lift off weight pre-set into the scale, the Amber screen lets your picker know when they are coming close to the desired weight, the Green screen indicates the desired weight has been reached and it’s time to lift off and the Red Screen indicates that too much weight is in the punnet/tray. The feedback we have received from harvesters has been excellent and they have told us that they are now just working off the lights, which has helped with their speed and of course with the correct weights being picked there are more mushrooms for them to pick which increases their KG/H. With the scales using 1 long life rechargeable battery and 1 spare included in the pack, buying endless amounts of batteries will be a thing of the past.  

We launched this product at the Mushroom Days show in Holland in 2019 and since then we have shipped these scales to Spain, Portugal, England, Lithuania, Holland, Poland, France and as far away as Australia.

We have implemented these scales on many farms throughout Ireland and they are eligible for grants through your P/O.  We are delighted with the feedback and have found that new pickers on farms find them easier to use and help them get up to speed quicker”. 

You can watch a video demonstration on www.checkweighscales.com