Labour management and harvest technology provider AgPick Technology has enhanced the capabilities of its key tool, AgPick to include an SMS system which allows growers to recruit and communicate with pickers directly ahead of Australian cherry season.

Chief executive officer Henrietta Child said customer demand prompted the improved SMS functionality and a raft of updates implemented in time for the coming cherry season.

“The SMS integration enables growers to directly recruit and communicate with prospective pickers and plan their labour, via a simple system. There’s a lot of intensity around cherry season and it’s important for growers to be able to book their own labour and know who’s coming.

“Being able to plan labour quickly and simply, after more of two years of disruption to the seasonal workforce, should bring peace of mind to growers,” she said.

“We see this feature will have particular interest from any fresh produce growers with seasonal workforces.”

Ms Child said other key updates include the development of a detailed dashboard which captures real-time productivity and identifies quality issues. As well, there has been further enhancement of its piece-rate calculation and recording feature – which aligns with growers’ piece-rate management plans under the new Hort Award requirements.

“AgPick now has the ability to capture, in a rolling dashboard, much more complex and specific data such as who’s leading in productivity and what quality issues may be attributed to pickers.

“This enables the grower to get better control over quality issues, take appropriate action and eliminate potentially costly QA errors. Specific feedback includes frequency and severity. These updates happen in real time in the paddock and can be accessed from anywhere.

“We continue to enhance piece-rate calculations and reports – recording different piece-rates for different jobs on multiple blocks, all of which can be exported to payroll. The system supports both hourly and piece-rate operations and allows individual workers to easily move between hourly and piece-rates as they gain experience,” she said.

Ms Child said many fresh produce growers were still grappling with Fair Work’s ruling that they must keep accurate records of time and activity for pieceworkers and pay the minimum hourly rate under the variation to the Horticulture Award.

AgPick uses state-of-the-art RFID technology to capture data at the source and can read bar codes, UHF, and NFC tags. It can mix and match workflows to tailor the user experience to the farm’s needs.

“We already have the technology, it’s affordable and easy to implement,” she said.

AgPick relies on mobile devices and data upload and makes use of mobile touch screen technology to reduce or eliminate the need for tray tagging.

“It uploads information in real time. It can tell the shed what’s coming from the field – what type of fruit, volumes and grade which enhances productivity and creates efficiencies.”

Ms Child said AgPick is now implemented in various tree crop operations as well as berries, table grapes and other horticultural crops. She said it can easily be configured for any fresh produce setting where hand picking was involved.