Kyle Tosana, Manager
Hi, my name is Kyle Tosana. I’m a blueberry manager at Boyanup Fresh Blueberries. I’m a second-generation farmer, and we love growing blueberries!
All our blueberries here are under net just to keep them protected from the pests and diseases that we get here. So far, we’ve got 16 hectares under net. The back paddock – we’re slowly expanding that. It’s got a total of 20 hectares that we want to expand more into blueberries.
Our picking months are usually around October through to December when the majority of our fruit is. Over a 12-month period, if we’re not picking, we’re packing. If we’re not packing, we’re checking the bushes and we’re making sure everything’s right out in the field.
We’re quite new to ABCgrower. It’s been very helpful for collecting data and being able to have the ability to introduce different contractors, being able to split [the different contractors pay information] up, whereas we never really had the ability to do it before. And they’re collecting the data of each individual person, and all in the click of a finger. The QR codes on the trays relate to that person, and each person has their own barcode that they use. It is a lot easier to track each individual worker, how many kilos they pick, and do all their time sheets, and make sure they’re getting paid for what they’re actually picking.
The transition from our old system to ABCgrower was a little bit complicated at first. But once we were kind of getting familiar with it and learning the way the software works, it’s been really easy. Because of the simplicity with using ABCgrower, it has definitely made the payroll system and the reporting a lot easier than the way we used to do it. Our results that we’re getting from the reporting are very accurate.
ABCspray has definitely helped us in record keeping of sprays. We’ve been using ABCspray now for two years. We got it back in 2022, and it’s really great for the chemical records and compliance. It’s been really great for getting off the paperwork, into anything like my phone, my iPad and all that. Just to have it basically at your fingertips to know when you can spray and when you can’t spray. ABCspray links really well with ABCgrower because that allows us to be able to know when we can pick that particular variety that we’ve sprayed during our harvest months.
[ABC] have provided us with a lot of information, and a lot of helpful ideas as well. When we were looking around for different software, we inquired about a few {other] different platforms, but none really met our requirements for what we needed here on our farm. The team at ABC Software made it quite easy for us to make a decision.
