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Agworld > Case Studies > Managing a large fruit orchard operation in the Pacific Northwest

Managing a large fruit orchard operation in the Pacific Northwest

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

Applicable Industries

Agriculture

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

The Challenge

Allan Brothers, a large fruit growing, packing, and shipping operation, manages over 700 individual blocks of apples, cherries, and grapes in their Yakima Valley Orchards. They needed a sophisticated digital solution to track their inputs and operations due to the sheer size of their operation. They wanted to become more accurate with their inputs, such as water for irrigation, fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides. They also needed a solution that would help them provide the exact amount of water their trees need for optimal production, rather than over-watering because they can. The first thing they needed was a good digital solution that helps them track those inputs that they have applied.

About The Customer

The Allan Brothers fruit operation was born over a century ago when the Allan family started planting cherry orchards around Nachos, WA. Over time, around 2,300 acres were planted with cherries, apples, and grapes to form Allan Brothers’ Yakima Valley Orchards. The Allan family not only grows their own fruit, but also packages and ships their own and third-parties fruit; their fruit gets sold in the United States as well as Asia, Canada, Mexico, and other countries. In recent years the fourth generation of the Allan family, Tom and Travis Allan, have assumed leadership roles and company ownership to continue the legacy of the Allan name within the Washington state tree fruit industry.

The Solution

In 2015, Allan Brothers decided to implement Agworld across their orchard operation. 16 key staff members got access to Agworld and started to record all fertilizer, insecticides, and herbicides used throughout the season. Agworld is a cloud-based platform that allows them to track all inputs that have been applied in every field of their orchards. It also provides basic access to their data for their staff, who can see all the information they might need but cannot enter data. This prevents them from entering wrong information or deleting other critical information. Agworld also automatically calculates their exact tank mixes and how much product they have used in general, eliminating the need for handwritten records and guesswork.

Operational Impact

Through recording critical input information for over four seasons now, the Yakima Orchards team have a good field history available.
They are also able to use Agworld reporting to create the information needed for their food safety, organic and food export audits.
Agworld helps them mitigate risks and makes the work environment of their employees safer than it was before.