Like any soft fruit grower, the owner of Australia’s Berry Sweet struggled with high labour costs. According to him, the purchase of Entomatic was a ‘no brainer’. The use of the automatic dispenser saves time and guarantees a homogeneous use of beneficial insects.
Entomatic generates an airflow in which beneficial insects or mites plus carrier are quickly, gently and evenly distributed in the greenhouse. Biobest developed the product in collaboration with Hortiworld. Now they are announcing the successful delivery of Australia’s first Entomatic.
Developed with growers in mind
The device meets the needs of many soft fruit growers, says Stephanus Malherbe of Biological Services, Biobest’s subsidiary in Australia. “I knew that Anthony Yewers, owner of the forward-thinking Berry Sweet in Bullsbrook, was looking for ways to automate the release of beneficial insects.”
After a few demonstrations, Anthony proceeded to purchase Entomatic. Anton Berns (Hortiworld) and Josh Rogers (Wanneroo Agricultural Machinery) assembled the device on site and arranged it in accordance with the grower’s wishes.
Time is money
Berry Sweet (a total of 60 hectares) comprises three locations in Western Australia where strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries are produced for large supermarket chains, among others. Malherbe: “Anthony has been a customer of ours for twenty-two years. At the time, he was the first grower to successfully use IPM programs against Californian thrips in his crop.”
With the rise of Chilli trips in Australia, a new challenge awaits him. This plague requires an even larger-scale deployment of natural pest control agents. “Manually releasing beneficial insects already takes a lot of time,” says Anthony. “And time is money. In addition, all employees involved have their own working methods, which means that the result may differ. That makes it difficult for me to judge whether the task has been done properly.”
Thanks
to Entomatic, the Berry Sweet grower is now optimising his biological control strategies and their effectiveness. “That gives me peace of mind.” The automatic dispenser reduces labour costs and ensures that the beneficial insects are evenly distributed throughout the crop.
Meanwhile, other growers are also knocking on Biological Services’ door. “Entomatic is particularly interesting for large companies,” Stephanus continues. “The larger the area where biology has to be released, the faster the dispenser pays for itself. We also receive requests from growers who want to purchase a machine as a group.”
Can beused flexibly
Because, according to Biobest, that is the beauty of Entomatic: it is a simple modular system and can be adapted to almost all greenhouse crops and cultivation systems. With 2 to 16 dosing points, it can automatically divide predatory mites such as Cucumeris, Californicus, Montdorensis and Persimilis, as well as Orius, into up to 16 rows at the same time. The system is designed with the grower in mind and can be used and installed by anyone with some technical experience.
