It’s really important for us at Juniper Systems to make regular customer visits whenever possible. It’s one of those things we strive to do in order to provide the best customer service we can. Within the HarvestMaster division, because many of our customers work in seed research & data collection, springtime is an especially busy time for us, and we make a lot of customer visits to ensure our customers are ready for harvest season. During customer visits, we conduct trainings and help calibrate and service equipment.
Recently I returned from South Africa, where I visited several customers and attended the Southern African Plant Breeding Symposium. It’s interesting to note the contrast between the needs of African agriculture and those of the U.S., as they are strikingly different. Because of the differences in climate and available resources, we have to adapt our HarvestMaster solutions in order to meet the needs of our customers there. For example, researchers in Africa process many grain samples by hand after the grain has been processed by the GrainGage™, in order to gather further data. To ensure maximum data accuracy from the hand-processed samples, we developed a solution for them that utilizes barcode scanners in conjunction with our Allegro handhelds.
The environmental conditions in South Africa are very different from conditions in the U.S. as well. For example, in the U.S., we plant corn rows roughly 30 inches apart, but in South Africa, because moisture is more limited, the soil can’t sustain as large of plant populations, so they must plant corn rows no closer than 5 feet apart! These factors significantly impact the amount of food grown per acre, so the agricultural advancements that are going on in South Africa are extremely important. Our goal at HarvestMaster is to provide researchers with the highest quality data to aid in their agricultural developments.
While on my trip, I also had a bit of free time to visit a few game reserves, where I snapped a few photos of lions and lion cubs that I thought I’d share.
I even got to hold one. It reminded me of a large cat, but a whole lot stronger!
My favorite part about visiting customers is helping them find solutions to meet their needs. Plus, it’s always interesting to see the different factors that impact agriculture in various parts of the world.
For more information about HarvestMaster and the solutions we offer, contact us online or at 435.753.1881.
