Easy to use
Recently Hazera Genetics breeding facilities in Israel moved toward one central location in Brurim. "We have built several new greenhouses which needed to be equipped with new machines," said Hazera's head technician Ariel Yafe. "We are nursing small young plants from seeds, so we need very precise techniques in the polyhouse. We can not simply irrigate, because each drop of water matters in our propagation strategy. Because we have many different crops in many variations in our nursery greenhouse, we need many types of irrigation programs, which was one of the biggest challenges to find in a new irrigation system. Despite the fact that we need to irrigate so many programs, we still wanted a machine that would be very easy to program and operate by our staff."
20 Zones
In their search for an irrigation boom that could meet their needs, Yafe got in touch with Fabio Camisa from Italian horticultural machinery manufacturer Da Ros. Yafe visited their factory in Italy and explained what Hazera was looking for. "In the first stage they said it would be a challenge for them to design such a boom, but after a few hours their programmer came up with a first rough draft of the software for the boom.""We demanded a boom that could detect and irrigate 20 zones in the same run, next to being stable, silent smooth and continuous," said Yafe. "As well as this it needed to be very easy for our staff to operate."
Smooth run
The eventual design of the Da Ros spraying boom can run up to twenty different programs and run multiple programs in the same irrigation schedule. "Everything is programmable said Yafe. "We program the time, amount of water, location. Because we have so many different crops, sown on different days and different hours, each crop needs a specific amount of water. The boom knows exactly where each crop is located. Thanks to the Touchscreen it is very easy to operate, which saves us a lot of time. As well as this it starts in the back and work its way forward, so it is not disturbing the people in the greenhouse any more, because everybody can continue with their work without being interrupted by an irrigation boom that needs to pass."
2 Nozzels sizes
Another added feature on the Da Ros Irrigation boom are the presence of differently sized nozzles. "We have two different nozzles, we use one for the irrigation, and the other for the fumigation. So the same boom that we use to irrigate, we also can use to fertigate or spray crop protection," said Yafe. "This saves us a lot of time, because the same staff can now also use the same easy machinery to fumigate the greenhouse. Because of the specific program, our fumigation has also become very precise and correct, it works on the same way as the irrigation program. 
Currently Da Ros has built 4 custom made spraying booms for Da Ros, but another 4 are already in the pipeline. Fabio Camisa added that Da Ros sold already 100 of their C13 Irrigation boom over the last year. "That is a direct result of the unique technique we can offer, no other suppliers have this available at the moment, he said. "The 120 mm rail system is in aluminium, the water and the steel cables are mounted on a fixed position so that any temperature change has no effect on the system. As well as this we used materials that are low in maintenance, there is not a single plastic roller in the design. The boom runs very smoothly and silently, also when it starts and stops, the irrigation still is very precise."
For more information:Da Ros Srl
Fabio Camisa
fabio@da-ros.com
www.da-ros.com