Finland - Full speed ahead in Träskböle
Stefan Nordmyr from Träskböle Trädgård in Finland has a lot going on. The intensive year around production of tomatoes and cucumbers needs constant attention. PrivAssist labor registration has recently been implemented in the company. At the end of the year a new bio mass boiler will provide heat to the greenhouses.
Träskböle Trädgård has stretched the limits for production of tomatoes and cucumbers with assimilation light, but optimal control of irrigation is also crucially important to get high yields. With the new Priva Root Optimizer software, irrigation is controlled according to a transpiration calculation and in combination with measurement of substrate weight and drain quantity. With these indicators, irrigation can be very precise. The system takes into account all external influences, such as evaporation increases due to outside radiation or radiation from assimilation lights. ‘This will save me a lot of time. I do not have to fine tune the irrigation myself any longer’, Nordmyr says. His Priva computer controls everything: climate, irrigation and heat production. A heat storage tank was installed recently and later this year a bio mass boiler will produce all the heat for the greenhouses. The heat management software will calculate the average heat demand based on the measured heat demand each hour. This peak shaving will give optimal running conditions for the bio mass boiler and heat will be stored in the heat storage tank for anticipated peak demands in advance.
Push of a button
Earlier this year a PrivAssist Smartline system was installed for registration of production and labor. With wireless hand terminals each employee is able to ‘scan’ the different jobs. The use of symbols for the jobs makes the system easy to use, even if the employee does not speak your language. When a path is finished, the path number is scanned and the time and performance are calculated automatically. In combination with work breaks, data from the terminals is uploaded wirelessly to the central database with the simple push of a button. Stefan Nordmyr: ‘It is easy to create work reports for salary payment and evaluate the quality of the work at the end of the day. That improves the company as a whole.’
