Berry Sweet (Australia) enthusiastic about Entomatic™
Like any soft fruit grower, Berry Sweet – based in Bullsbrook, Australia – was facing high labour costs. Purchasing an Entomatic™ is proving a ‘no-brainer’, as this automated dispenser saves time, reduces costs and guarantees beneficial insects are delivered in an accurate and homogenous flow.
Entomatic™ creates an air flow that gently and evenly distributes beneficial insects and mites throughout the greenhouse. Developed in collaboration with Hortiworld, Biobest is proud to announce the successful delivery of the first Entomatic™ dispenser to Australia.
Developed with growers in mind
“This innovative dispenser perfectly answers the needs of many soft fruit growers,” explains Stephanus Malherbe from Biological Services, Biobest's subsidiary in Australia. “Anthony Yewers, owner of the innovative Berry Sweet business, was looking for ways to automate the release of beneficial insects in his greenhouses. After seeing the Entomatic™ in action, he bought one.” Anton Berns (Hortiworld) and Josh Rogers (Wanneroo Agricultural Machinery) assembled the system on site, adjusting and setting it to suit the grower’s specific requirements.
Time is money
A 60-hectare operation, spread over three locations in Western Australia, Berry Sweet supplies strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries to Australia’s major supermarkets. “A customer for 22 years, Anthony was the first grower to successfully implement Integrated Pest Management to control Californian thrips in his crops,” says Stephanus. “The recent dramatic rise in Chilli thrips has created another challenge for Australian growers, necessitating further intensive use of natural predators.”
“Manual dispensing of beneficials is already very labour and time intensive – time is money,” says Anthony. “In addition, employees all dispense the mites slightly differently, so the results are not always uniform. It can be difficult to assess whether the task has been performed well.”
Optimising IPM strategy
Thanks to Entomatic™, Berry Sweet can now optimise its biological control strategy and its effectiveness. While giving Anthony peace of mind, the automatic dispenser is reducing labour costs and ensuring the beneficial insects are distributed evenly throughout the crop.
Following its success, other growers have now found their way to Biological Services. “The Entomatic™ is an extremely interesting proposition - especially for larger growers,” says Stephanus. “The larger the area to be treated using biological control, the faster the ROI for the dispenser. We’re also receiving requests from growers keen to buy a machine as a collective.”
Flexibility
A significant bonus of the Entomatic™ is its flexibility and adaptability: a simple, modular system, it can be configured to suit practically all types of greenhouses and cultivation systems. With 2-16 dispensing points, it can automatically dispense predatory mites such as Cucumeris, Californicus, Montdorensis and Persimilis, as well as Orius, in up to 16 rows simultaneously. Designed and engineered with the grower in mind, the Entomatic™ can be used and installed by anyone with a certain level of technical experience.
Discover more about Entomatic™? Please contact your Biobest advisor.