Bardsley England's mission to conquer the known fruit universe is well underway and seemingly on track, last year planting 20,000 of our Schnico Gala at the Marden site and the trend continues again this year! They were suitably impressed with the consistency of quality of all the trees, especially by their size, even distribution and amount of feathers, allowing for training in any form that they wished. This year has called for another 22,000 trees, from the same source and with the same end result.

The trees were planted on the now ubiquitous post and wire system, allowing for more yields due to the vertical growth and light penetration. The choice of Schnico was an astute one as it's the clone in most demand, producing a great apple, full of block colour and tasting delicious. Times and trends move on, but the gala apple remains steadfast and so does it's Schnico clone.

We would like to thank Bardsley England (especially Rob Wickham) for their order and hope the weather is kind enough to assist the trees in their growth and crop.

P.s We do of course have other clones of gala available to suit all and every desire, as well as other varieties. Please get in contact with us if you have any requirements, no matter how big or small.

I know what you're thinking, another article about Mansfields and BURG.....get a room, right!? Well they actually did, as you can see from the pictures and rather than get dirty in it, it actually gets clean. Inside each blue tank is a small snorkeled human feverishly picking out each individual dirt particle at a rate of 30,000 litres an hour, and they seem to be doing a rather good job of it too. Unfortunately health and safety doesn't allow this practice anymore so what actually happens is the water filters through layers of sand, glass and activated carbon which take out the particulates and the clean water is whisked away to the next stage of purification under UV lights, in order to eliminate the bacteria. Throw some hydrogen peroxide into the mix and this creates crystal clear water with no nasty unseen surprises.

The rationale for requiring a filtration unit is wanting to reduce the regularity with which the water is changed in the channels, due to the sheer volume in them and the associated cost of doing so. The idea is that you keep the water in the channels for as long as possible whilst maintaining good water quality. 

As always, thanks to BURG (Joan van Burg) and F.W Mansfields (Lee Port and Kuldar Sorra) and of course our glorious leader Peter Kelly for all their hard work. Whilst we're at it, they rarely get the appreciation they deserve; thanks to BURG engineers Andries, Mark and Piet and KFS reprobates Matthew, Marcin and Mark for the actual installation.

Can all 4 viewers of this website please put their hands together and give Wye Fruit a warm welcome to the Kent Fruit Service's newsfeed? Congratulations on making the big time ladies and gents.

​Nothing like real footage shot in portrait to prove we have done something; see below for our flawless BFI working, well...flawlessly. The previous method of utilising their redpack was a more labour intensive manual method, which worked but was just too inefficient. Enter the BURG BFI 3.0 to save the day. It has eliminated a lot of the unnecessary manual elements and instead now churns out 70 packs a minute consistently, day in day out, with a high degree of accuracy. You can rely on the partnership between BURG and Redpack as they have worked together on countless occasions and the symmetry between the two means less wasted packaging and automatic speed adjustment when one or the other speeds up or slows down. 

A new addition to the BFI line set up is a split weigh belt situated nearer to the BFI than the traditional dosing wheel method of fruit delivery. The principle of the BFI is backwards communication, so if the belts with load cells underneath detect a lack of fruit, the BFI tells the weigh belt to speed up and deliver more fruit in order to maintain a continuous flow of fruit for the batching section. The reason the weigh belt is more successful is the smaller distance between the BFI and where the fruit is delivered; this means less delay to the supply and more consistent batching.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Wye Fruit for the order and look forward to working together again in the future.

I bet you've been wondering where we had got to....

Newmafruit just can't get enough of us and the feeling is mutual. Not long after they have installed an iFA system for their existing Geosort grader, they go and purchase a new Combisort too, replacing their faithful servant of an MSE. Fear not though, we never put a good grader down and pledge find it a new forever home somewhere.

The new Combisort will jump in the grave of the MSE as it sits exactly where it used to, but with 6 lanes instead of 4. This increases capacity of the machine but more importantly gives them increased longevity, whilst the design also allows for modular increases if they decide to uproot it and move it into roomier surroundings. The old machine was fed by a BURG POLS-AP infeed and the new one will too. We love it when our suppliers work seamlessly together and our customers do too.

This new machine means Newmafruit will continue to be able to efficiency and gently grade pears and Bramley for many years to come (as well as apples). We hope to have many more articles dedicated to Newmafruit in the future and would like to thank them for our ongoing partnership.

In the meantime, click the link below for a wonderfully informative video about the Combisort:

Mansfields continue to headline our Product News page, this time with the installation of a GREEFA pre-sizer with some packing thrown on the end for good measure. This extensive project replaces the existing MAF RODA machine that is incapable of doing pears and finally brings all top fruit production under one roof at their West Site. This 8 lane GREEFA Combisort machine is fed apples or pears by a top class infeed, sorted and subsequently distributed to one of the 16 water channels or packing lines. If fed to the water channels, they're accumulated in the short water canals and inserted into a bin by a very clever, and very gentle vacuum system. Finally, a robot takes the filled bins and stacks them in their respective place ready for storage.

This project is in keeping with the modern trend of pre-sizing fruit for dedicated packing lines, 5 of which Mansfields already have; 3 were recently installed. This system increases efficiency of packing but also reduces giveaway, potentially allowing for the abolition of processes at end of line, such as check weighing.

This project was as mentioned above, to bring all top fruit under one roof, thus reducing unnecessary movement of fruit. The ongoing plan of Lee Port is coming together nicely and this is but a further piece of the puzzle. Retaining GREEFA as the supplier of the grader is very savvy as Mansfields already have a GREEFA Geosort machine, so there will be no learning lag with the program of the new machine. The planning of the project was undertaken by Lee, Gert Brouwer and Peter Kelly, with astute observations by Kuldar Sorra a welcome injection. 

As always, thanks to GREEFA for their assistance with the project, our fantastic engineers (Daniel, Mark, Matthew, Keith and Marcin) and of course F.W. Mansfields for their ongoing partnership! Keep your eyes peeled for further F.W. Mansfields news in the near future....

Do you like getting chemical powders and granules in your eyes and mouth? Well the Venturi filler isn't for you then. This wonderfully simple system makes putting the correct amount of chemical granules/powder into your main filling tank almost painfully easy. With the turn of one handle, the Venturi system begins to suck the chemical from the bucket and places it into the main tank, ready for mixing. Unless you have a particular sadistic affinity to ingesting Captan, then the purchase of this is a no brainer, and at a mere €195 it's a steal too.

Want to see it in action? Buy one. Just kidding (sort of), we have one on a sprayer at our office for demonstration (until the sprayer is sold, anyway) if you want to come and view it.

Bardsley Farms, in one of their now many guises, have purchased a(nother) 3 Row sprayer, this time for Highland Court Farm at Bridge. Their orchards were crying out for a multi row sprayer as they were perfectly linear with decent headlands, allowing the Munkchof 3 Row sprayer to radically reduce the time and effort it takes to spray the farm. Speaking to growers, it is becoming increasingly important to speedily react to weather conditions and the conventional method of sprayer just didn't allow that to effectively happen. The Munckhof cuts spraying time nearly in half, allowing for rapid reaction to time sensitive issues such as scab, nipping the problem in the bud.

The sprayer is the new all singing, all dancing version of the conventional sprayer, debuting the new technologies in the UK including VARIMAS system, LED lights, cameras and hydraulically driven extra agitation. The VARIMAS system measures the wind speed and direction and cleverly adjusts the amount of air ejected from each side to push more against the the wind and less with it, for maximum efficiency but also saving quite considerable amounts of (expensive) chemical! LED lights and cameras on each bag now make spraying in low light conditions a doddle too, increasing potential spraying time further. 

All these additions have added further star quality to an already top notch machine, with extras such as a joystick control system (replacing the switchbox) to come later in 2019 and no doubt further bells and whistles too, it's well worth keeping an eye on both our product page and Munckhof's website too www.munckhof.org

Gaskains has become the latest top, top fruit company to purchase not one, but two Munckhof 3 row sprayers. Akin to most modern fruit growers, Gaskains have planted their fruit in linear post and wire formations over the past few years; ideal conditions the 3 row sprayer. Adding to their budding fleet of Munckhof one row sprayers, the 3 rows will take the majority of the work, with the smaller one rows doing the smaller, bittier jobs.

The Munckhof 3 rows have got smarter since their inception, now deploying the VARIMAS system (optional) that judges wind speed and direction and intelligently varies the intensity of spray on either side, based on those readings. Furthermore as other optional extras, it has new cameras and LED lights but also a joystick controller that replaces the older flick switches, making operation easier than ever.

For more information, a quotation or to order yours now, please contact office@kentfruitservices.com

BURG and F. W. Mansfield & Son continue their close affiliation with another installation of yet more packing lines at Nickle Farm. The recent revolution of the way Mansfields pack and grade their fruit has meant a dramatic increase in efficiency, contributed to by two major factors; BURG's machinery and Lee Port's leadership. All top fruit grading and packing is steadily coming under one roof, reducing unnecessary movements and inefficient labour. This simple yet radical idea has once more put Mansfields at the forefront of the fruit industry. 

Following on from two packing lines previously installed (2 BURG BFIs fed by a 3D wet infeed) the current project is another 3D robot servicing 3 lines; a further BFI flow wrap infeed, a dual wicket bagger line and a forced packing line. This spans all the disciplines of fruit packing, allowing for increased capacity but also more importantly, flexibility. During discussions about the project the key was future proofing - this diversity of packing options and their layout allow for development in the future, leading to increased automation and further efficiency savings.

Every detail of Lee's plans were attended to by Joan and his colleagues, ensuring all aspects were tailor made to make working on each line easier than ever before. 

For further information about BURG and the plethora of machinery they offer, please visit http://www.kentfruitservices.co.uk/burg-machinefabriek.html or http://www.burgmachinefabriek.nl/

Loddington Farm took delivery of a Pluk-O-Trak this summer to revolutionise the way they pick fruit. With the orchards perfectly suited for the harvesting machine (post and wire set up) the picking rate has dramatically increased, allowing for picking at the perfect time. James Smith opted for our junior version with 4 picking arms transporting the fruit to a bin filler, in combination with an empty bin trailer being towed behind. 

Compared to picking trains the Pluk-O-Trak dramatically reduces the picking cost per bin, increases storage efficiency due to less empty space in the bin and reduces tractor movements in the orchard. All these combined add up to big savings year on year. Initial figures suggest that picking costs are reduced by £5 per bin, and overall costs reduced by £11 due to the reasons highlighted above.

The machine isn't just a one trick pony, many of our clients use it all year round for pruning and thinning as well as harvesting, maximising the return on the initial investment. Our harvesting equipment stays on the machine throughout, negating any chance of removal damage. Furthermore the Pluk-O-Trak perfectly balances solidity with weight; easily negotiating the worst of winters, with its 4 wheel drive without turning your orchard into a potato field.