Herbert Engineering has supplied a new potato grader to Billockby Farms. After the challenging lifting season of 2010, Billockby Farms, who grow 660 acres of main crop processing potatoes near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, realised their grader was the weak link in their potato harvesting operation - inadequate cleaning meant a loss of throughput. Having been helped out with emergency repairs on another manufacturer’s grader by Herbert in the past, it was to Herbert that Billockby farms turned to fulfil their requirements: and they have been delighted with the results.
Henry Alston, who owns and runs Billockby Farms, explains: “Our previous main grader broke down with an electrical fault on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of the main lifting season, when we were hoping to grade over the whole weekend. Having failed to acquire assistance from our current supplier, I contacted Herbert’s out of hours service. The service engineer said he could fix the problem and by 8am on the following morning, he was onsite and the grader was fixed. I was so impressed with this service that I decided that when we changed graders, it would have to be Herbert.”
Billockby Farms worked with Herbert agricultural division sales engineer Steven Skipper to discuss designing a grader for their requirements. Steven Skipper explains: “When faced with increasingly difficult weather conditions, the window for lifting decreases, so Billockby wanted a grader that was large and fast, and which could get the potatoes into and out of store quickly, whilst at the same time being sufficiently mobile to be moved from site to site. The solution was to take a large static grader and mount it on two chassis and incorporate high capacity cleaners and large inspection areas for the pickers. The grader is future proofed too with an extra belt, which can be replaced by another Multi-sep cleaner”
Mr Alston adds: “We were very happy with the time scale from order to delivery and we have seen huge outputs and financial benefits following the installation of this machine in our system. The level of after care service from Herbert staff and their interest in the performance of the machine has impressed us greatly. It was a big investment for our potato enterprise, being capable of a throughput of 60 to 70 tonnes an hour, which meant we bought a second box filler from Herbert.”
This year sees Herbert Engineering celebrate its 40th anniversary and launching a record number of new products. From the early days of serving growers, originally in post harvest on field grading to, more recently, electronic grading for processors, Herbert's ties with the potato industry have remained strong and become the backbone for the business.
