Satellites
Growing strong healthy coffee trees requires a careful balance of pH, aluminium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulfur, zinc and iron. We accomplish this by using geospatial technology, which allows us to map spatial variation in crops and soil components. This allows us to monitor nutrient deficiencies, pests, or diseases in real time, so we can easily correct factors that hamper crop performance or compromise our yield potential.
Land isn't the only thing we monitor, we also employ a technology called multi-spectral remote sensing, which allows us to measure canopy parameters like the leaf area index, which measures photosynthesis and evapotranspiration. LAI gives us detailed information on water stress, vegetation cover, above ground biomass, crop height and even crop yield.
Using satellite technology allows us to stay 10 steps ahead of our competition, giving us precise data that allows us to keep our coffee trees in top shape all year round, guaranteeing a constant crop yield and reducing the chance of disease.
Hardware
Most coffee growers rely on the good old machete and elbow grease to manage shade, windbreakers and plant height. While there's nothing technically wrong with this method, it is very time consuming and requires a large amount of manpower. By motorizing this important procedure, were able to cut down work time and workforce by 75%.
Coldroom
& storage
We developed our very own custom coldroom to help us conserve coffee seeds for a whole year, allowing us to supply seeds all year long worldwide. Our coldroom allows us to maintain a precise temperature and moisture content, while also being extremely energy efficient.
For consumption coffee we keep it in humidity controlled storage facility in grain pro bags for proper conservation until you need it.
QC tech
We use some pretty nifty gadgets for quality control, some custom made, some commercially available. We made our own custom bean size separators because there simply weren't any available when wee started growing Marsellesa. Precisely cut out of 316L Stainless Steel they allow us to separate our beans into their classification based on size.
The Agratronix Coffee Tester allows us to measure the exact humidity level inside our beans, letting us know when to stop drying them. Keeping the right amount of water humidity in the bean allows master roasters to deliver a consistent roast profile based on customer needs.
The old brixometer is also one our most used tools. We use it to analyze the perfect ripeness for harvesting and we also use it to decide what preparation would suit the lot best.
Greenhouse
This is the greenhouse we use for drying purposes. It keeps a stable 31˚C for slow drying. The temperature can also be adjusted depending on environmental conditions, or preparation requirements. The greenhouse is stacked with lightweight wood beds that allow easier manipulation and rotation.
Blue truck
This cool little truck is used for pretty much everything at Valle de Oro, however it's main uses are transportation and coffee recollection. We use it to transport our workers within the finca, we also take water and heavy equipment where we need to. It's so tiny it fits between our coffee tree rows, during recollection season we use it to aid our workers with heavy sacks of coffee.
Traditionally workers would have to carry all those beans back to the main office for hand selecting the beans, but at our finca all they need to do is pick the beans and place them on the truck and let it do all the heavy lifting. Our workers are more productive this way, keeping their backs happy lets them focus on only picking the perfectly ripe beans, which is a huge part of our coffee's taste and speeds up the process of selecting beans later on. Using a truck probably seems like a no brainer, but we're the only finca that we know of in the region that uses one!