Tong demonstrated a new vision for labour efficiencies

Tong Engineering demonstrated its latest handling equipment advances that focus on overcoming post-harvest labour challenges, at the UK’s largest agricultural machinery show, LAMMA this month.

“Reducing costs and maximising efficiencies are a priority for everyone right now, and there’s no doubt that vegetable growers and producers faced a common set of challenges throughout the 2022 harvest season,” says Charlie Rich, Sales Director at Tong Engineering.

“The industry has experienced difficulties in sourcing reliable labour to effectively grade and sort crop. Likewise, minimising crop mileage and associated costs has been more important than ever.”

“As vegetable handling equipment specialists, we are continuously developing our equipment to overcome these challenges with automated and efficient solutions,” explains Charlie. “A number of our new product developments have really come into their own during harvest. In particular, the FieldLoad PRO and our industry leading Caretaker mobile grader have proved very popular once again, with the latest technologies in automation and optical sorting options being key drivers for equipment upgrades. We have manufactured several Caretakers with integrated optical sorting facilities and this option is now available on the latest models of the FieldLoad PRO too.”

With record sales of the FieldLoad PRO in 2022 destined for UK vegetable growers as well as overseas producers as far as Australia and Canada, the increasingly renowned fieldloader from Tong has proved a game-changer in effectively cleaning and loading crop in the field, straight from the harvester. This results in a much more streamlined postharvest handling process, requiring fewer operators and no unnecessary carting of soil as all soil and debris is left in the field. The FieldLoad PRO with Tong’s EasyClean separator is a particularly popular specification for unrivalled cleaning in all conditions.

Successful potato crops start with the right products and the right timings

What do the latest potatogrowing trials tell us about how to ensure good quality, highyield harvests?

“This year we’ve used traditional demonstration plots,” states Oscar Thacker, Area Manager for Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire,” but we’ve also expanded out to field-scale trials. As well as reducing variability, field trials provide that vital knowledge exchange between Yara and our customers.”