3/06/2010

Trip to Imperial Valley

Hi Followers,



I'm back in Reno after a long trip through the south of California. Two weeks ago I went down to Imperial Valley to meet Blake Fuller, a Krone Product Specialist, and Tom Brown, a salesman from Central Implement. Central Implement is the Krone Dealer for the Imperial Valley region. The main reason for that trip was on the one hand to see, where we start our Roadshow at the end of March, and on the other hand to speak to some customers in that region, who still own one or more Krone balers, or who are interested in a Krone baler. For me it was also a very interesting trip, because I had never seen so big fields with vegetables or so many cattle in a dairy before.

Here some salad fields....

... and a big carrot harvester.

Also such a perfect watering system with several canals to get the water from Colorado River to the fields on one side and to drain it on the other side was completely new for me. In Germany we have so much rain, so we don’t need such a system.


It was also very impressive for me to see a big customer like Agritrade, who export the hay, baled with several KRONE BiG Pack HDP, to overseas. Because of the HDP baler they don't have to repress the bales in such a big stationary bale press - the HDP bales are heavy and strong enough to load a container to its maximum weight. So it is possible to load the containers directly on the field - that saves lots of money.



Another very interesting place was at Triple III Press, where they repress small bales with big stationary presses to get higher Bale density, so that they can load a container up to the weight limit. They also cut the bales into two pieces for the asian market, because the smaller bales are easier to handle over there. Many people buy every day the hay they have to feed to their cattle, and they have to carry it home by small vehicles or motor-scooter.

Here you can see the huge hay and straw storage, and some of the Containers they have to load.

This is the place, where the normal bales come to the machine. A forklift pushes a hole pack into this red frame....

..... so that the bales could be lined up on the other side to a transport belt which carries them to the press.

On the way to the main part of the machine an operator removes the twine of the small bales, so that the blue hydraulik driven bar can push the material into the press chamber of the stationary baler press.

Here you see the other side of the machine. On the right side you can see the hydraulik driven plunger, and on the left side in the front you see the new high density bales, which are ready for shipping. You can also see, that they are cut into two pieces, to make the bales smaller. 

And here they load the plastic wrapped bales into one of the containers.

Every day in the morning we could see the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy's flight operation squadron over the valley, when they were on their training flights. It was amazing to see them operating in the blue sky.





So, the week at the Imperial Valley was very interesting for me, because I saw many interesting things, and of course we had some good customer meetings too. But the most important aspect for me is, that I know, where I will start the Big Krone BiG Pack 1290 HDP Roadshow 2010 at the end of the month. Now I know a little bit of what's going on down there.

Regards
Niklas