YOUR INDUSTRY
NEW MOBILE VEGETABLE WASHING SYSTEM RECYCLES 95 PERCENT OF THE WATER FOR CARROT FARMER Bonnie Flaws
Washed carrots loaded up for transportation to the McCain’s processing plant
Hugh Ritchie – Hawke’s Bay cropper, sheep and beef farmer, and Horticulture New Zealand board member – has used Kiwi ingenuity alongside European technology to recycle vast amounts of water in his mobile, post-harvest carrot washing operation, which can be moved from paddock to paddock. Previously, after harvesting his carrots, Hugh would ship truckloads of carrots to a plant in Hastings where they would get washed. From there the carrots would be shipped to McCain’s processing plant and the sediment that came off in the washing process was trucked back to the farm to be put back on the paddock. Now, using high tech equipment from the Netherlands, including a water recycling unit, a modified 40-foot shipping container for water storage as well as an old potato tumbler from McCain’s, Hugh retains the majority of water used during the washing process. He also siphons off the dirt sediment into ponds to be reapplied to the paddock once any water has drained away. 18 NZGROWER : JULY 2022
“I knew we had to do something better than just letting the water run away. The flume uses about 20 cubic metres of water an hour to keep it flushed and fresh and then we are probably using 10 litres a second through the sprays.“ The washer could be fed with new water that then runs off, or as Hugh has done, recycled to use throughout the harvest.
I knew we had to do something better than just letting the water run away. The flume uses about 20 cubic metres of water an hour to keep it flushed and fresh and then we are probably using 10 litres a second through the sprays “Because it is mobile, we can take it to the paddock where the carrots are being harvested. You can see all the dirt coming out. Rather than carting it to Hastings and then bringing it all back again, we can do it in the paddock and leave the dirt where the dirt needs to be.“
