The feature story ("TECHNOLOGY can improve efficiencies and drive down costs") profiles two businesses that invested wisely and successfully in new technologies and that dramatically reduced costs and enhanced the bottom line. Have you thought about investing in state-of-the-art systems that can make your operation more efficient? Many other businesses throughout Northeast Farm Credit have taken the step. Here are a few examples:

• Computers in harvester/processors. A timber harvester/processor is a multi-function tree-length processor that cuts and delimbs trees, and then cuts logs to length, all without the operator ever leaving the booth. Scott Chaffee, of Chaffee Logging in Belchertown, Mass., wanted more accurate records of the board feet he cuts in order to gauge production and improve communication with the sawmill. A computer in the booth of his harvester/processor records volume cut in a day’s time and tallies the total volume in board feet. The rollers in the harvester feed the tree through the processing head, and sensors calculate the length, while sensors in the pinchers calculate diameter. Using length and diameter, the computer calculates and displays the board feet in that segment of log.

• Mechanical harvesting of pickling cukes. Hands-free harvesting of pickling cucumbers was such an incredible revolution about 10 years ago that when Don Patterson, of Patterson Farm, LLC of Sunderland, Mass., first spoke of it, some thought he was from Mars. But hand harvesting was labor intensive, and Don wanted to cut high labor costs. He worked with a manufacturer and together they developed a mechanical harvester that cut labor costs from 50 percent of the cost of harvest to 30 percent.

• GPS and GIS systems as aids in timber management. Foresters once used a hand-held compass, a measuring device, and hip chain for a perimeter measurement of an area. Now foresters, like Mary Wigmore, of Wigmore Forest Resource Management, Ashfield, Mass., use hand-held global positioning systems (GPS), and download points of areas to a GIS (geographic information system) database to help create maps of an area. They can also download aerial photos and topographic maps from Web sites. This improved technology provides more accurate mapping information and saves significant time.

• Producing an energy source from manure. As long as Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport, Vt. has cows, they will also have access to a renewable source of power. The farm produces energy from animal wastes, relying on anaerobic digesters, which produce methane gas from the waste products. Central Vermont Public Service supplies its entire green power program with anaerobic digesters, selling the resultant power as CVPS Cow Power. In mid-January, 2005, the 1,500-head dairy farm began supplying power to the CVPS program, and is expected to produce 1.7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

If you think technology might be in your future, Farm Credit can provide consulting assistance (for example, by running “what if ” spreadsheets for you) or helping with a loan or lease. A call to your local Farm Credit office will get you started.

Case 1 - Steve Riessen, Sun Orchard, Click here

Case 2 - Luke Brochu, Pleasant River Lumber Click here

Is NEW TECHNOLOGY in your future?  Click here

Main article  Click here

This article first appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of Financial Partner magazine. You can receive this FREE publication by clicking here.

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