Company: WB Chambers Farms
Industry: Borehole & Well Water
Location: Maidstone, England, UK
Case Study
Overview
WB Chambers is the largest independent cane fruit grower in the UK, supplying quality fruit directly from the farm to many of the country’s major retailers. They grow an extensive range of berries, currants and stone fruit and are especially recognised as market leaders in the year-round supply of quality raspberries and blackberries.
Key Issues
The farm is in an area known for having particularly hard water, and the water source for this particular site is a borehole. On their 18ha site, the 112km long Netafim irrigation system provides water to approx. 900,000 plants via almost 800,000 drippers. Due to scale build up caused by hard water they have to replace up to 5% (40,000) of these drippers annually as they become blocked. The replacement of the drippers necessitates not only a large expense of capital and time but also results in a reduction in yield of between 5-10%. This is a huge loss in revenue for the farm.
Our Solution
Environmental Benefits
There are several additional environmental benefits because of installing the lntegro technology:
- Improved water quality and distribution to drippers
- Reduction in scale and corrosion to critical equipment, meaning decreased engineer visits and reduction in spare parts, which would otherwise carry direct and indirect increases the site's carbon footprint
- Extended life of all water-related equipment and improved efficiency
- Reduced chemical use
Summary & Results
The initial 3 month trial was a huge success. The trial clearly demonstrated that the Sidon IntegroTM system worked extremely well to remove existing limescale, and prevent formation of new deposits through the hot and cold water systems. The system was free from scale ahead of the 3 month schedule and commitment was made by the Uphams Group to roll the technology group wide to their other 14 properties.
What the customer had to say?
“In July 2020, we installed the Integro. Within the first 4 weeks we noticed existing scale build-up being removed throughout the whole irrigation system. It continues to prevent blocked drippers, saving us time and money. Sidon Water have been professional and helpful, they are a great team to work with.”