Production - Onions

Planting
Moonrocks grow a variety of onions in sandy and loam soils. Onions are planted throughout May- July. Beds are formed after making the soil fine from multiple turnings. Onions are planted by a vaccum planter, The planter places coated seeds 8 rows to a bed and approximately 80 onions per metre. Trickle Tape is buried beneath the seed at the same time as the planting for irrigation and fertigation.

Growing
With the onions taking three months to germinate from seed to onion bulb they are under constant scrutiny watching for pests and disease. Due to Moonrocks remoteness from any other horticultural growing area Moonrocks have found their pest and disease presence significantly lower if at all in their onions, thus reducing use of pesticides.

Onions have a low water demand, and in conjunction with the use of Trickle tape they are significantly water efficient. The onions take daily irrigation until approximately 10 days before they are ready to be lifted, the first step in the Onion Harvest. Onions show signs of maturity in several forms. The most recognise-able is the fall of the leaf or the lodging.

HARVESTING
Lifting
Because the bulbs are buried part way in the soil the onions have to be lifted before the harvester can pick them up. The lifter is basically a steel rod, which runs below the onion bulb severing the roots, ultimately killing the plant. The leaf then dies and the onions begin developing their crispy husk exterior. It is at this stage onions are susceptible to sunburn.

Moonrocks use Machine Harvest technology versus human labour harvest. The onion harvester is driven from a tractor and can harvest one bed at a time. The harvester can be customised to suit the crop, soils, and demands. Moonrocks harvester dispenses of the smallest size of onions, the pickler. The harvester also can have human graders on the machine during operation to grade onions and remove non conforming onions.
The harvester has the ability to fill several ½ tonne bins simultaneously.

DRYING
Due to the scale of the harvest more onions are harvested than can be packed at the same time. Therefore onions are stored in their ½ tonne bins and left for periods in front of fans, as well as left naturally to dry.

PACKING
When onions are ready for packing they are brought to the onion shed in their ½ tonne bins and poured into the ‘hopper’ which carries the onions evenly past an inspection point to the Topper & Tailer. The Topper & Tailer can be interspersed with plain conveyor belts, but generally eliminates human removal of the leaf and roots of the onion by the use of steel rods which turn, pinching the tail and roots off which are sent to the trash truck by a series of conveyors.

Once the onions are free of roots and excess leaf, the onions pass a large inspection table where multiple graders monitor and remove any non conforming onions. It is at this point the speed of the onion grader can be set.
The onions proceed over brushes before rising to the top of the machinery where they are graded by a series of ‘Chains’. These chains are set to interchangeable sizes.

The smallest onions fall through the gaps onto a moveable conveyor, which can be directed to any number of lanes. These lanes length can range from 1 metre to 20 metres long. The lanes can be used like a draft and onions can be sent to different forms of packaging from manual baggers, bins, automatic baggers and carton filling machinery. Before onions move into the hoppers of each individual packing device they pass a third inspection point where human graders identify and remove second grade onions.

Moonrocks can pack onions in a variety of forms from 10kg mesh bags to 1 tonne bags, as well as an assortment of cartons.

Each filling device has calibrated scales to ensure each bag weighs as close as possible to its desired weight. Pallets have to be hand stacked at present and require stamina and fitness to continue stacking hundreds of filled bags during the summer packing season.

Once a pallet is formed in the palletiser the Pallet is exchanged for a new one, whilst the full pallet is secured, labelled and recorded, until finally it is placed in storage awaiting dispatch.

Transporting
Moonrocks onions are transported by the pallet on dry transport carriers. They are sold to markets and wholesalers along the eastern coast of Australia, therefore up to 5 trucks a day carrying approximately 20 tonnes each leave Moonrocks for Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.