US: Harvesting a better strawberry, all night long

GK machine and Musco lighting, have teamed up to provide a revolutionary product to service America’s growing need for a better strawberry. GK is a privately held, Oregon based company started in 1976 by Gary and Keith Grossen. GK is renowned for building innovative products for mining, tourism and agriculture with lean manufacturing processes for America and the world. Similarly, Musco, a privately held Iowa based company, was started in 1976 by Joe Crookham and Myron Gordon, and is known for making the highest quality lighting systems. Musco’s forte has been providing lighting systems for bridges, buildings and stadiums throughout the world.

The two companies were brought together in a project to enable Florida strawberry growers to beat the heat and get their valuable product to market before noon each day and provide a better job for harvesters. GK’s Strawberry Harvester allows 40% more berries to be harvested each hour improving earnings and productivity in a challenged labor marketplace. The harvester is a proven technical advancement with over 300 in place in the US and Mexico. Musco’s lighting enables harvesters to make quality decisions in the field and harvest the fruit in the early morning hours while it is coolest. This is reducing rejects by nearly 10 fold and extending the shelf life of product that would otherwise be harvested in the heat of the day. The team currently has joint projects in Lake Placid Florida, Oxnard, Santa Maria, and Salinas California. The current feedback has been positive with unprecedented quality advances and harvesters preferring to beat the traffic, heat and return home to meet their families each day before noon.

For more information:
Dara Abell
GK
Tel: +1 (503) 678-5525
Email: dabell@gkmachine.com
or
Tom Morrisson
Musco
Tel: +1 800.825.6030
Email: tom.morrison@musco.com