A Cornell study has found that apple orchards surrounded by natural habitats are visited by a more diverse collection of bee species than those surrounded by agricultural lands.  The study found that production improved in orchards surrounded by natural habitats; as apple production suffers when fewer, more closely-related species of bees pollinate an orchard.

The Ontario Apple Growers Association and Ontario Tender Fruit Growers Association would like to invite you to attend a one-on-one CropTracker training workshop next week. Would you like to learn more about how to use CropTracker and what it can offer? If so, you may be interested in attending this workshop which will provide a hands-on, one-on-one training approach from one of Croptracker's developers.

Consumers' attitudes towards online shopping are becoming increasingly positive as time goes on - and online grocery shopping is no exception.  In 2018, grocery e-commerce sales totaled $58.9 billion — a whopping 35.4% increase from 2017.  Today we look at the implications  the online grocery shopping boom hold for fresh produce growers.

With minimum wages on the rise in many countries, automation is becoming an increasingly hot topic within the global horticulture industry.  More and more growers are combating soaring labour costs by turning to technology in the form of robotic pickers, sprayers, and packers.  However, the initial investment and upkeep costs for these solutions are usually prohibitive; and for many crops - like apples, sweet cherries, table grapes, asparagus, and peppers - automation is simply not an option.  Until we build robots that can mimic the delicacy and precision of human hands and the nuanced perception of our brains, growers of labour-intensive crops will need to look beyond robots to mitigate their rising costs.

However, technology can help growers keep costs down not solely by eliminating their labour force, but also by maximizing the potential of their teams.  Croptracker's Work Crew Activity & Labour Tracking module makes it easy to track productivity; store records; calculate payouts; and identify issues in the work flow and act accordingly before issues become costly problems.