The harvest started 2-3 weeks late due the cold spring, but according to Anthony fruit sizes are good and, despite not seeing a bumper crop, he is looking forward to a positive season.
"We have finished harvesting Bramley, Worcester and Early Windsor apples and we are now busy with Gala, Cox and Spartan. The Empire and Jazz varieties will start in the coming weeks."Clark said it was still too early to predict the total volume this year, "but it will be a great deal more than last year, which was uncharacteristically low. It will be more on par with 2011’s tonnages."
Mansfields packs for all the major UK retailers. The company has all packing facilities on site in Kent. Mansfields, which is well known for its green credentials, invested at the end of last season in a Near Ifrared (NIR) spectrometer to measure internal quality of fruit.
They have also invested in GPS soil mapping, which helps to accurately target fertilisation of the orchards, this more effective and better for the environment. The orchards are also irrigated in a very efficient manner with water collected in a reservoir, by using this method the company has reduced the amount of mains water used by 80%.
Mansfields also has Dynamic Controlled Atmosphere storage and LIDAR which can give the density of the orchard using a remote sensing technology which measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser and analyzing the reflected light. This helps to measure the quality and quantity of the fruit in the orchard.
For more information:
Anthony Clark
F.W. Mansfield & Son
Tel: +44 1227 731441
Mob: +44 7500 863790
Email: clarka@mansfields.net
www.mansfields.net