Lincolnshire grower L&D Flowers is developing solutions to mechanise harvesting and packing of cut flower crops to boost efficiency and profits.
Sunflowers have become an increasingly popular cut flower in recent years, but along with much horticultural produce, their production has always been labour intensive. L&D Flowers is aiming to tackle that issue by mechanising the harvesting and packing process and using the latest equipment for growing to further increase efficiency and profitability. The company is the market leader in sunflowers, growing 270ha, with Tesco as its biggest customer, alongside Marks and Spencer, Lidl and Waitrose.
“We were unique as both a grower and packer of flowers, although this is becoming more of a popular model,” explains director James Lacey. “My goal is to automate the entire process, and working alongside Tong Engineering, we have recently developed one of the most advanced sunflower packhouses in the industry, designed around mechanised harvesting, which has cut the requirement for packers by 350 people.”
The business also grows 40ha of Sweet Williams, and James comments that he had been considering mechanising the harvest for this crop for 10 years. “In 2018 we grew a perfectly level crop which was suitable for harvesting mechanically.
“I put out a Tweet asking for ideas and Ed Hodson at Grimme came back to me straight away offering to help.”
Trialled successfully in 2021 and modified for this season, this machine – which is based on a chive harvester – collects the whole crop, cuts the stems to length before transporting to the rear of the machine where they are placed in trays for bunching at the packhouse. “It has taken 50 people off the line for this crop, and we hope to streamline the process further,” he says
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