Abstract:
Today's marketing of horticultural products demands more and more the possibility to predict the yield for the nearby future.
Buyers need a regular supply and in order to meet their demands the producer needs to anticipate on possible over- or underproduction. In common tomato production there is too much emphasis on the crop.
The grower tries to have a crop with an optimal growth and balance that leads to the highest possible production over the whole year.
This way of growing inevitably causes an irregular yield pattern with highs and lows in production and therefore gives a sub optimal net profit by the end of the year. In order to plan the production a year plan on company level is needed.
From this year production plan a culture plan or operational plan can be derived.
During realization of this culture plan it is essential to foresee deviations from the year plan in order to correct them by adjusting the culture plan.
For controlling the production in this way a prediction of the yield is necessary. From the culture plan and the realized data on fruit setting and greenhouse climate a prediction is made for the coming weeks.
LetsGrow.com uses the Internet for interfacing this application.
In this way no installation of software is required and the grower always uses the latest version.
Data are securely stored and backed up on the servers of LetsGrow.com.
Every week the grower puts in his data and the prediction is calculated and presented online.
Together with the prediction the system also indicates what happens to production with a slightly lower and higher greenhouse temperature for the next weeks, thus allowing to control production.
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