AHERN USES ABS TRIAL

Joe Ahern and his son Kevin Ahern founded Ahern Seeds in 1981.

Today, Ahern Agribusiness, Inc. is based in San Diego, and led by Kevin Ahern as CEO.

Mrs. Gabriela Michel is the Product Development Administrative Manager of Ahern Seeds. When interviewed for this ABS Newsletter, Gabriela explained, “Ahern Seeds’ main products are vegetable seed genetics like, tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and more. For these, Ahern supports growers in south western United States, Mexico, and the Central American countries. With our team of fourty-seven agronomists and with thirty-eight years of experience, Ahern provides variety specific crop advice to more than 2,000 growers in the region”.

Mrs. Gabriela Michel,

Product Development Administrative

Manager of Ahern Seeds.

Ahern conducts research and development tests in every agricultural production region. By working with the leading breeders in the world, they are able to identify what seed varieties will yield highest and provide the best quality for the lowest cost per unit. From thousands of research lines the focus is narrowed down to a handful of superior hybrids that offer the most outstanding value to every member in Ahern’s supply chain.

The main software used in Ahern is SAP Business One. In December 2018 Ahern decided to implement ABS Trial for product development trial evaluations. Ahern is convinced of the value added by ABS Trial because of the excellent database management, user friendliness, real time overviews and flexibility of the program.

Now, in March 2019, there are 8 online users and 24 offline App users working with the ABS Trial program. Plant and fruit size, uniformity, cover, vigour, maturity, shape, colour, texture, taste, disease resistance and shelf life are some of the dozens of factors measured, compared and selected to offer the growers the best vegetable variety.

The real time overviews and easy creation of reports are the main advantages of ABS Breeding in daily use. When asked, what problems Ahern has experienced so far, Gabriela answered, “We have not experienced any problems, it is a matter of adjusting the formats to our company’s necessities. Furthermore, ABS technical support makes changes quickly and usually the changes are already made as we talk about them.” In the future, Ahern plans to use the software to its fullest capacity in Central America and Mexico.