Laser bird deterrent protecting high quality wine grapes

Location:	Tolombon, Salta, Argentina
Application context:	Malbec, Petit Verdot, garnacha grapes, vineyard
Problem definition:	Birds attacking people and eating grapes
Bird species:	Parrots, Psittacopasserae
Time of the year with bird problems:	December – March
Time of the day with bird problems:	From dusk till dawn
Number of systems:	1 x Agrilaser Autonomic 500
In use since:	In use since 2017
Laser projection area:	20 hectares (49,42 acres)
Average production before the Autonomic’s use:	58.000 kg
Total damage before the Autonomic’s use:	25 %
Damage reduction after the Autonomic’s use:	90 %
Average production after the Autonomic’s use:	105.000 kg
Average price per kg:	1 USD

Winery significantly reduces bird damage after installing Agrilaser Autonomic

Estancia Los Cardones winery is located in Tolombón, Salta province, on the top of the eastern slope of the Calchaquíes Valleys about 1,700 meters above the sea level. The vineyard grows Malbec, Petit Verdot and Garnacha grapes on a 20 hectares land.

The Saavedra Azcona family partnered with the engineer and winemaker Alejandro Sejanovich and at the beginning of 2017 they founded the Estancia Los Cardones winery.

The first vineyards date back to the year of 2009. Estancia Los Cardones grows different types of wine grapes, Mainly Malbec but also some Petit Verdot, Garnacha, Cabernet and Marsanne grapes. Nowadays the vineyard has a capacity of 150,000 liters of wine. The intention is to expand up to a capacity of 250,000 liters.

Fernando Saavedra, the owner of Esancia Los Cardones Winery tells: “Every year we have to fight off the parrots that invade from the surrounding ravines. They are causing a lot of damage to our crops. We have tried many different bird deterrent methods over time. Our Agronomist recommended to use the laser technology as a bird deterrent at our vineyard. At first when we heard about Agrilaser Autonomic, we were hesitant to give it a try.

“Like it happens with many new innovative solutions, we had some doubts about the effectiveness of the laser and it’s bird deterring capabilities. However, once we tried the laser ourselves we were sure that it simply works! Immediately we saw a significant decrease in bird presence at our vineyards. Thus, we managed to decrease our crop loss drastically with the Autonomic laser bird deterrent.”

“We are really happy with the results, so we will continue protecting our vineyards with the Autonomic laser bird deterrent in the next harvest season.”

www.estancialoscardones.com