Mushroom Farm Sees Big Gains with SkidWeigh Classic SC5
Niagara on the Lake is home to one of the largest greenhouses and contained agricultural farms in the world with over 350,000 square feet of indoor growing space. Specializing in Lion’s Maine and Blue Oyster gourmet mushrooms that require very strict growing conditions factors such as cold chain optimization, strict quality control alignment, instant yield metrics and equipment durability weigh in on almost all decisions that affect the farms productivity.
With such an expansive space and several critical staging processes in the farming of mushrooms from growth and eventually to the shipment to stores throughout North America, weighing both core and sub product has an impact on efficiency. Working with their local forklift service provider that sells and services the majority of their 60 plus vehicles in their fleet, they decided that they would put IVDT’s SkidWeigh SC5 on 4 of their electric pallet trucks. The SkidWeigh SC5 is specifically designed for class III vehicles with its engineered software for pallet truck applications. The SC5 is the only retrofit onboard scale available for class III products on the market. This provides a huge opportunity for companies that already own electric pallet trucks and are looking to increase productivity by introducing weighing without adding additional steps and processes associated with travel to a floor scale. Once installed and introduced into the various applications on the farm the SC5’s payback could be attributed to the following 4 operational and product design advantages.
The first advantage was the ability for the SC5 to function and work in cold chain optimization. Mushrooms thrive in damp colder conditions which are ideal for the preservation and shelf life of the product. Introduced to dryer warm conditions the mushrooms start to advance their climacteric lifespan. Usage of the SC5 allows the farm to harvest, package and organize shipments with weight associated to the inventory sheets in the mushroom’s ideal climatic conditions preserving product. The second advantage is the ability to adhere to Quality Control Alignment (QCA). Food production is regulatory in North America with very strict evaluation placed on touch points of the food in question during the process of growth, packaging until it eventually leaves the premise during shipping. The SC5 eliminates additional equipment, processes as the product is weighed at the source of each process without unnecessary movement required to seek out additional weighing equipment. The third area that the SC5 provides a return on investment is Instant Yield Metrics. Perhaps the biggest gain this farm can realize with the addition of an SC5 is the ability to eliminate process steps, with 350,000 square feet and huge property to support the SC5 eliminates unnecessary travel. With the onboard scale installed on the pallet truck weight is instant. For example, nutrient rich growing broths as well as other liquids are stored and required for growth production. Prior to the introduction of the SC5, determining the quantity needed could take an hour at a time to separate and move to the required area. With the SC5 weighing the liquid totes within 3-5 seconds the farm estimates is saves up to 4 hours daily eliminating the step to travel to a floor scale. The fourth and final advantage is the durability of the SkidWeigh SC5. Repair, maintenance and ultimately replacement are a factor in damp wet growing environments. Farms allocate a significant investment annually to maintain equipment required to grow product. The SC5 with its compact protective indicator housing and temperature rating protects sensitive components from the environment. This ensures that the scale performs as it should maintenance free time and time again.
The overall cost affordability along with its simple install make the SkidWeigh SC5 an easy decision for almost any agricultural business. Weighing product at various stages in the process is a production requirement and the SC5 can integrate into those processes without adding steps and or time.
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