Computers don’t make mistakes

“For me, quality and efficiency are key in the day-to-day operation of my mushroom farm”. These are the words of Pieter van den Oord, owner of Maasland Champignons BV, a modern mushroom growing and trading company in Hedel.

Klant

Maasland Champignons BV

Marktsegment

Mushrooms

Oplossingen

Mushroom growing phase

Maasland Champignons BV was founded in 1992 and now comprises of 22 growing rooms, all controlled by a Fancom 765 mushroom computer. There are 14 rooms with a growing surface area of 300 m2 and a further eight rooms with a surface area of 420 m2. The last eight rooms date from 2018 when the company expanded by constructing a separate building that houses the office, a packing and dispatch department and accommodation for the workforce. The mushrooms at Maasland bv are picked by hand, and as they have their own, partly international sales channels, running the farm is labour intensive. A large proportion of the workforce comes from Eastern Europe and visitors notice at once that important work instructions are available in several languages. When any of the employees came to ask for advice during our interview, Pieter automatically switched to Polish to discuss the situation with them.

The ideal line

The buildings and equipment were all supplied by the Christiaens Group, which also offers Fancom mushroom computers as part of their turn-key solutions. Pieter van den Oord very deliberately opted for Fancom climate control in his growing rooms: “Fancom climate computers have an extensive and flexible range of options, Fancom was clearly at the forefront of these developments. I also want to use a climate computer for its intended purpose: fully automatic control of the climate processes. So you don’t want to have to do a whole lot of things manually as well. That defeats the object. We have developed a blueprint that represents the ideal line for the production process of my mushrooms. Our computer settings are configured to follow this ideal line accurately throughout all phases of the process, from spawn run to cook out. I'm satisfied with my production results, computers don't make mistakes. If you make the right settings, it does precisely what you want.”

Fine tuning with intuition

All I have to do is finetune the climate settings. I inspect the growing rooms twice a day. First of all I use FarmManager to check the situation on my control computers, then I physically inspect the rooms. Mushroom growing is a natural process. Depending on the substrate activity, the quality of the raw materials used in the compost or outdoor weather influences I have to make minor tweaks to the blueprint using my experience and intuition. There are obviously limits to what automation can do. After all, a computer cannot look at the mushrooms. But, if I have to skip an inspection for whatever reason, I can rely on the systems functioning properly. If anything threatens to go wrong, I get an alert on my phone and can use the app to assess the situation. I have complete confidence in the computers on my farm. I have not been disappointed once in all these years".

The control computers
help us use our
energy sources efficiently.

Pieter van den Oord — Maasland Champignons BV

Sustainable and energy efficient

Van den Oord has invested in sustainable growing methods from the word go. An array of more than 1,600 solar panels has been installed on the roofs of the buildings. He also utilises various modern techniques: cold and heat storage, heat pipes to reduce gas consumption, a heat pump with heat exchangers and energy efficient LED lighting everywhere on the farm. Maasland Champignons BV is fully committed to reducing its energy consumption, but makes no compromises on quality: “The control computers help us use our energy sources efficiently. We set wide control bandwidths so we can create stable and reliable climate conditions. The computers monitor the climate conditions continuously and, for example, automatically use outside air if it is suitable. This avoids unnecessary cooling or heating".

Satisfied

Pieter van den Oord is a satisfied businessman. There is scope for expansion at the farm, but no concrete plans at the moment. “Growth is not really my ambition. Bigger isn't always better. I want to maintain a focus on quality and satisfying customer demand. I currently have around 40 customers and can respond to their demand very flexibly. That matches the capacity of my farm perfectly. You have to keep things feasible and manageable. And think practically too. If we fill one large and one small growing room as a combination, we need precisely two full loads of substrate and one trailer of casing soil. That prevents any half-filled trailers on the road" he concludes. Typically Pieter: efficiency down to the smallest detail.

Do you want to use complete farm automation in your business?

Forward thinkers

Forward Thinkers have one foot in the present and one foot in the future. What they do, they do well. And to keep it that way, they look ahead. Can it be done differently, can it be done better than we are doing now?

Case study

Computers don’t make mistakes

Optimal climate conditions in the fermentation bunkers at Coenegrachts Substraat

Case study

Optimal climate conditions in the fermentation bunkers at Coenegrachts Substraat

Lumina 765 and 767 for Mushroom grower Van den Boomen

Case study

Lumina 765 and 767 for Mushroom grower Van den Boomen

The ideal line

Fine tuning with intuition

Sustainable and energy efficient

Satisfied

Forward thinkers

Contact us

Looking for superior farm conditions?