<b>2011 Profit Quest:</b> Programmable boom saves labor costs

The new boom system provides hundreds of species the unique water requirements they need.Take into consideration the expense of one or two employees working only a few hours on Saturday and Sunday.

By eliminating those hours, you can add literally thousands of dollars to your annual bottom line. That’s exactly what Lawyer Nursery Inc. in Olympia, Wash., is doing to increase profitability in 2011.

The company has added several programmable watering booms to its greenhouse range to eliminate the need for a weekend watering crew during the growing season, said Seth Swanson, Lawyer greenhouse manager.

The company grows plugs of hundreds of varieties of woody crops. Each has their own watering needs. The new McConkey watering booms can be programmed to provide individual crops (all on the same bench) with individual watering needs.

“We’ll basically program the boom system on Friday afternoon, giving the best estimate of what we think the plants are going to need, depending on the weather,” Swanson said. “If we’re germinating new seed, we can even program in mist intervals, or if we know it’s going to be hot, we can program in some cool-down mists.”

In the past, the company has based crops’ irrigation needs based on water loss. That requires taking sample trays and weighing them on spring scales.

“But that requires having somebody on site seven days a week,” Swanson said. “But that’s really laborious and time consuming.”

For more: Lawyer Nursery Inc., (360) 456-1839, www.lawyernursery.com.

Specifics:
Name: Lawyer Nursery Inc.
Location: Olympia, Wash. The company also field grows bare-root liners in Plains, Mont.
Founded:  1959 by David Lawyer.
Crops: Bare-root and containerized plugs – primarily woody crops including natives, ornamentals trees and shrubs and rootstocks.
Greenhouse space: 10,000 square feet, and another 10,000 acres of outdoor production.

Quotable:
“When you look at the labor you’re spending for one person, two days a week during the growing season, that really adds up. So by eliminating that, we’re looking at some serious savings with this new boom system.” 
– Seth Swanson