WATER PROJECT

For many years it was thought that we were too close to the sea and that any drainage water was too saline for agricultural use locally but we have found that if we test carefully we can extract water during a few weeks in most but not all winters. Our silt land will always need less water than sand land but to guarantee our customers a reliable supply of produce in today’s very demanding supply chain and we will complete in 2020 our water and irrigation project. One of our reservoir projects was fortunate to receive a Water Resources Management Grant financed by the European Union. We can now;-

• Extract and store over 100,000 cubic metres of water in three reservoirs.

• Irrigate all but two of our fields.

• Supply and irrigate for neighbouring vegetable and flower growers or exchange land annually for high value crops.

• Increase the yield and quality of celeriac, fennel, potatoes and onions grown by Jack Buck Farms.

• Increase the resilience of the farm in the extreme weather patterns we now experience.

• Increase the efficiency of irrigation application using booms rather than rain guns.

CELERIAC WASH and PACKHOUSE

This is by far the biggest project that Jack Buck Farms has undertaken in our history but if we are to keep up with our customers increasing needs then we have no choice. The project includes:-

• A new access road for HGVs onto our site.

• 10,000 square metres of concrete.

• A 2,100 square metre building for washing, drying and packing celeriac including a work in progress chill store.

• A new wash line that will more than double output.

• Water treatment plant that cleans and recycles all water.

• A drying system that will reduce energy use.

• A packing line that reduces waste and enables even the most difficult specifications.

See the new wash and packhouse in action below.

SATELLITE GUIDANCE PROJECT

Over the last ten years a small revolution has been taking place on all farms in the UK and Jack Buck is no exception. Satellite guidance and steering of equipment is enabling extra-ordinary accuracies in the fields, reducing waste by eliminating overlaps or gaps and enabling “controlled wheelings” so that if we want we can use exactly the same track each year. We have yet to see where this will ultimately take us but so far half our tractors and sprayers are equipped and no doubt they all will be in time. To a highly skilled driver, it is a mixed blessing; now anyone can maintain that perfect straight furrow or drill but no one is complaining, it is so much less tiring and the benefits are terrific.

Celeriac and POtato Harvester

After completing the packhouse project we moved out attention to the next bottleneck in our systems and we felt it necessary to increase our harvesting capacity of both potatoes and celeriac.  We used to run two harvesting machines each lifting 2 rows of potatoes or 3 rows of celeriac.  After a study trip to Holland we saw the benefits of investing in a self-propelled harvester that can harvest 4 rows of potatoes or 6 rows of celeriac and do it quicker because it has more soil cleaning capacity.  It is also running on tracks at the back where most of the weight of the machine is.  This spreads the load and it leaves the fields much more level for the subsequent crop.

See the new harvester in action below.