We are two days into NAMPO and we are getting great feedback from all the people walking through our stand. Our smaller tunnels have sold very well and we have many commercial growers interested in our multi-spans! Have a look at some photos of this years stand! Hope to see more of you on Thursday and Friday!

We are on our way up to NAMPO today to start building our site. Our site will show off the range of tunnels we have available. Our sales team. Will be on hand for the 3 days to answere any questions you may have. So whether you are wanting a backyard DIY tunnel or a 1ha commercial Multi-span Greenhouse – come visit us on stand 191 NAMPO 2012!

Today the Students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology helped to construct a Haygrove Garden tunnel. The tunnel was 4m x 10m and we got the entire tunnel constructed in less then 5 hours. The day was used to train the students to put up the second tunnel on their own. The tunnels will be used for state of the are hydroponic production. I look forward to returning in a few months time!

At our stand at NAMPO (Stand 191) we will have some clever devices to help you monitor both soil moisture and climate. If you are a maize farmer and looking for technology to help you increase your yields by scheduling the irrigation effectively below your pivots – come visit us! We have solutions for you

Once again Haygrove will have a stand at NAMPO (15th to 18th May). The 2012 show will be our 9th year in a row! Come and see us at our Stand #191. For those of you who have never attended this show – it is well worth it. The biggest show in the Southern Hemisphere! Have a look at the following link for more details: http://www.grainsa.co.za/nam_index.php

I have inserted a few photos of our last years stand.

We look forward to seeing you there!

I was in Thabazimbi last week and witnessed three of our new Small Scale Production units being handed over to some emerging farmers. These tunnels are DIY and arrive in kit form. The three tunnels were all constructed in less than 7 hours!

The tunnels were 4m wide and 6m long. They are also available in 10m lengths. With a height of 2.4m, zipped doors either side and no compromise on strength; it is proving to be a very popular tunnel!

These photos show some very happy growers!

I have just got back from another trip to Mozambique to see the tunnels we have recently put up there. Our tunnels have done exceptionally well to maintain good temperatures in this challenging climate. Vent gaps combined with the height of our Trellis tunnel and our luminance THB polythene have ensured that tunnel temperatures seldom climb more than a few degrees over ambient temperature. The steel gutters on this site are doing well to keep moisture away from the plants. We had 75mm of rain in the 36 hours I was there!

The Chillies look impressive!

It was great seeing many of our existing clients at the Undercover Farming Expo! To all those who saw Haygrove for the first time – it was good to meet with you! We have been busy since we have got back but should have followed up on all actions from the show by now.

Currently we have two options for shade net structures.

Option 1: Haygrove shade net structure comes in at double the leg spacing of our plastic structures. The reason for this being that there is far less resistance against wind from shade netting than plastic. We therefore space the legs at 4.4 meter distance from each other. We have many farmers who start of their farming venture with a shade net structure when capital is a shortage. Then in year 3-5 they will convert everything to plastic by purchasing more hoops and legs.

Option 2: Pole and cable system. The attached picture is over Apples. Trials are being conducted on the benefits of different shade net colours and percentages with their effects on the trees. This system is about half the price of the Haygrove shade net structure. But is made of wood. And depending on how it is constructed, can battle to stand up to serve hail storms or snow. Whereas the Haygrove shade net structure sheds hail. And can handle snow if managed. And always gives you the option to convert to plastic cover. The steel also insures some sort of re sale value later.