Strawberries, Robots, and Real Dirt Farming: Memorial Day at the Farm
Hi friends,
I used to think my job was safe from the robots. I’ve discovered a system developed in the UK where they grow strawberries off the ground in these elevated soil bags. They are grown in field scale poly tunnels, protected from the rain and wind. It’s pretty impressive. Everything is highly automated. And they have robots which they say “will increase farm productivity whilst reducing packhouse and farm labour, fruit waste and fungicide use, and ultimately eliminating fossil fuel use.”
Strawberries grown in a hoop house
A good strawberry grower, one with experience, is supposed to be able to yield 1.5 lbs of strawberries per plant. I planted 7600 strawberry plants. This being my first year and knowing what I know about farming (groundhogs, disease, insects, weather, etc), I figured I could grow 0.85 lbs of berries per plant. If I charged $4.5 a lb I could make $29,000 in strawberry sales. Yippee!! Holy cow! I loved seeing that number in the business plan.
I’ll be lucky if my strawberry sales are 1/2 that number. There’s a lot of reasons for that figure, and wasted berries is one of them. I’m thinking about next year. Already ordered my plants and I started plowing the new strawberry plot this week. I have got to figure out how to grow this crop without so many wasted berries (and time, effort, natural resources, money). At the NC Strawberry Grower’s Conference last November someone asked a panel of seasoned growers how you could grow strawberries organically (for the record I am not). Laughter erupted from the entire room, including the panelists. One of the growers finally answered by saying if you’re serious about growing organic strawberries, grow them under cover, like a poly tunnel or hoop house.
Elevated growing strawberries
My wife says no one will want to come pick strawberries growing like that. It wouldn’t be fun. Maybe so. Not having to bend over. No weeds or touching a gross rotten berry. Just sunshine, rainbows and robots zooming down the path pulling berries in their buckets.
Come pick some berries for Memorial Day weekend. We’re open Friday May 23rd from 9am-7pm and Saturday May 24th from 8am-5pm. We will have bunches of kale (green curly and toscano), sugar snap peas, and basil for sale at the farm as well. Call the berry hotline for the most up-to-date hours at 919-627-2946.
Your Farmer,
David Heeks
P.S. If you’ve enjoyed your experience at Heeks Farm picking strawberries, playing with Chester or admiring the chickens would you consider leaving us a google review? Thank you.