Sal Parra Jr., MBA ,Assistant Farm Manager at Burford Ranch, manages over 12,000 acres of almonds, vines, garlic, onions and other crops in California.
In this video he explains how Phytech helps him manage and optimize his vast operation; "It's a tremendous tool which I use on a daily basis", Says Sal to Customer Success Manager, Ryan Vieira, "It takes the guesswork out of irrigation by giving a recommendation. I can save water while still maximizing. Phytech helps farmers be better".
Watch the video or read the excerpts below from the interview
"An EKG machine for trees"
With over 13 years of experience, Sal uses Phytech to monitor his vines and almond trees' growth rate and health and determine how much irrigation to deliver based on real-time data on his mobile device.
"I learned about Phytech from neighbors that are innovative people and like to adopt new technologies. They told me it's like an EKG for trees. For me that was a game-changer. We started with a few blocks and now we use the system for the entire farm".
"Phytech has been very helpful because we're giving the tree what it needs, only when it needs it. It helped us mitigate phytophthora, because we're not over-watering"
Optimizing hull-split
"First thing in the morning I check my app, see which blocks are in stress. Where trees are not showing stress, we can back-off with the water. Right now, Phytech also assists in optimizing hull-split. We can induce stress in the Nonpareils by reducing irrigation and keep them in the orange-yellow range. Simultaneously we keep irrigating the Montereys because their hull-split is still 3 weeks away".
Optimizing Veraison
"In wine grapes Phytech has been really useful in optimizing Veraison because there too we are able to monitor trees' health while keeping the berries' growth.
Sal with Phytec's Customer Success Manager, Ryan Vieira
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"The most useful things for me are being able to save water, and maximizing yields. On top of the technology, they offer great customer service. That's been a key. A lot of technologies that are out there don't support what they offer. With Phytech, when I call, they're in the field within a day.
