Page 44 - Grapevine July-August 2019

Around The Vineyard

and fabrication led to many of the features and options now
available on the modern day versions of Turbo-Mist Sprayers.
Return on investment, through product reliability and amor-
tization, is something the company touts, as its team points
out that some of its long-time customers are using versions of
Turbo-Mist Sprayers built some 50 years ago.

Careful planning is essential to any farming enterprise and no
less important for vineyards. Slimline Manufacturing revolves
its season around its customers’ needs, adding that its Turbo-
Mist Sprayers play a vital role. Slimline Manufacturing boasts
of a dealer network that teams up with customers well before
harvest time, often up to a year in advance. The goal is to help
these customers achieve optimally planned, well managed and
environmentally sustained spraying practices.

Rachelle Wirth, Marketing & Communications Manager for
Slimline Manufacturing, says the company strives to provide
customers with genuine solutions in real time. “Fuel costs in
many of our customers’ regions are becoming astronomical;
water shortages are becoming the new normal. Operating as if
these issues are going to correct themselves is not an option.”
Wirth says that Turbo-Mist products enable growers to drasti-
cally reduce fuel costs and water use without sacrificing cover-
age, yield or crop quality.

Working in tandem with vineyards to develop new products
is another method by which some manufacturers, including
Slimline, keep pace with customers’ needs. Steve MacDonald
manages some 300 acres under MRS Vineyard Service in Oliver,
British Columbia. “Our spray program is a good example of
using the best equipment,” MacDonald says. “Your starting
point is choosing a sprayer that will deliver the droplet size you
want to where you want it. Slimline Manufacturing...worked
with us to develop a couple of three row machines that are still
as good today as when we purchased them in 2009. Each has
over 15,000 acres under their belts.” MacDonald translates
that coverage into less than five dollars per acre applied capital
cost for a $70,000 machine.

Felco is another company which turns to its growers for
input into product development. Ryan Amberg, Marketing
& Business Development Manager at Pygar USA, a division
of Felco, says, “New product developed by Felco is done in
a grassroots manner where the modifications and design
requests happen from the grower and end user level. This is
part of the reason Felco offers the most comprehensive assort-
ment of high quality tools in the market.”

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