Also in the Czech Republic automatic transplanting is gaining foothold. Recently one of the largest tree nurseries in the Czech Republic, Lesoskolsky acquired a Da Ros transplanter. With a production acreage of 200 hectares, automatic transplanting can play an important role in the decrease of Lesoskoly's labour costs.
"Our main reason for switching to automatic transplanting is to decrease the amount of people needed during the season and save costs of production," said Přemysl Němec of Lesoskolsky. "In the Czech Republic we have to deal with a shortage of man power so we are very dependant on people from abroad."
The history of the leading nursery in the Czech Republic goes back more than 100 years. A private enterprise was established in 1992, which nowadays produces forest trees on 200 hectare. Lesoskolsky annually produces 20 million bareroot plants and 7 millions cell-grown plants, divided over 7 nursery locations. More than 90 percent of the production is designated to Czech forests.
Consistent quality
"With such a large production, an automated process can have a huge impact on our cost-efficiency," said Němec. "Hence we were looking for a automatic transplanter for several years and finally we purchased one last year."According to Němec, the first step needed to be made before starting to use an automatic transplanter was to prepare good seedlings. "You can't simply put a machine in your nursery and start producing," he said. "As a grower you always want to maintain a high quality product, one of the challenges when choosing automatic transplanting. It means that you need almost 100% fullness of miniplugs and a consistent height of seedlings. It took us a couple of years of testing and improving before we achieved the right combination and consistency."
2.5 million transplants
Last year, Lesoskolsky transplanted 1 million trees with the news Da Ros transplanter. "This year we are going to transplant 2.5 million trees," said Němec. In the future we plan to install a second Da Ros transplanter.One of the reason for choosing Da Ros is that Němec got good recommendations for Da Ros machines from colleague growers. "Next to this, I am familiar with Da Ros sales manager Fabio Camisa who dealt with me honestly," Němec said. "And of course the price-quality aspect was very important to us."
About the Da Ros TP-E Transplanter
According to Fabio Camisa of Da Ros, the transplanter 'is the best solution for growers who have different types of crops'. "The machine is easy to set up and even easier to use. It is not a problem to use different configurations trays between plugs and destinations. The clamps/fingers that are not needed do not have to be removed as they will park themselves automatically."
Versatile programming and easy adjustment
Camisa further added that the ease of adjustment and the simplicity makes the machine set-up fast. "Pick-up and deposit parameters can be modified with the control panel even while the machine is in operation. With new and updated software we now have the possibility to configure the control panel in all languages of the world; a way to make your transplanters able to work with all kinds of employees."
For more information:Da Ros Srl
Fabio Camisa
[email protected]
www.da-ros.com
