Heuch Cooling Solutions
At the last Lawn Solutions Australia Conference, Heuch Cooling Solutions introduced vacuum cooling to the turf industry as a practical way to tackle one of the biggest commercial challenges growers face, heat build-up after harvest. The concept was simple, but the promise was significant. Remove field heat quickly, slow product deterioration, extend shelf life, reduce waste, and give growers more control over delivery timing and quality on arrival.
Now we have the data to show that promise is real.
Since that presentation, Heuch Cooling Solutions and Weber Vacuum Group have run two Australian field trials in collaboration with Lilydale Instant Lawn and Coolabah Turf, covering two seasons, three turf varieties, and three storage environments. The results were not marginal. They were commercially meaningful. Across the trials, vacuum cooling consistently reduced pallet core temperatures, extended the saleable window, and created a measurable advantage during the most critical period after harvest.
That matters because turf is one of horticulture’s most perishable products. Once cut, it starts generating internal heat through respiration. According to the study, pallet core temperatures can exceed 50°C within days, and in extreme cases have been documented as high as 70°C. Under standard summer conditions, shelf life can shrink to just 12–24 hours. That is the commercial reality growers work with every season: a very small window to harvest, dispatch, deliver and install before quality starts dropping fast. The new Australian trial data shows vacuum cooling can change that equation.
Across the study, the headline numbers were clear: 3–5 times shelf-life extension in summer, more than 9 days at ideal temperature when vacuum cooling was combined with cool room storage in winter, a 19.8°C temperature drop in a single cooling cycle, and only 2.5% moisture loss from a 1,630 kg pallet. In other words, the system removed almost 20 degrees of heat without materially compromising product moisture.
The winter trial at Lilydale Instant Lawn tested three varieties under three different conditions. Eureka Kikuyu was stored outdoors, TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda in a factory shed, and Sir Walter DNA Certified buffalo grass in a cool room. Each had one vacuum-cooled pallet and one untreated control. In every case, the vacuum-cooled pallet held a meaningful temperature advantage through the commercially important first three to five days. Outdoors, Eureka maintained a 6–9°C advantage through Day 5. In the shed, TifTuf showed a 4–8°C advantage through Day 3, remaining ahead even as temperatures gradually re-balanced. The strongest winter result came from Sir Walter in the cool room, where the vacuum-cooled pallet reached 4.6°C by Day 2 and stayed below 7°C for the full nine-day monitoring period. The untreated control in the same room took five to six days to reach similar temperatures.
That last point is important. Cool room storage alone helps, but it does not remove heat immediately. Vacuum cooling does. The combination of both gave growers the benefit from Day 1, not Day 5 or 6. For businesses holding inventory before dispatch, that difference is operationally significant. It creates a real buffer and reduces the pressure that usually defines turf logistics. But the most compelling test came in summer.
At Coolabah Turf, the study looked at Sir Walter under peak seasonal pressure, with ambient temperatures reaching 37.5°C and no cold chain in place. The vacuum-cooled pallet dropped from 27°C to 7.2°C in one cycle. The untreated control then went on to hit 43°C by Day 3 and 52°C by Day 6. The report describes it bluntly: the control pallet was effectively composting itself from the inside. By comparison, the vacuum-cooled pallet maintained a 17–23°C temperature advantage across the first three days.
The visual observations made that data even more powerful. On Day 2, the vacuum-cooled pallet still showed no visible signs of heat-up, while the control was already deteriorating internally despite looking reasonable on top. By Day 3 afternoon, the control had developed a bad smell, lost around half its colour, and was no longer commercially viable. The vacuum-cooled pallet remained saleable longer, giving a larger and more workable dispatch window. That is where the bottom-line impact becomes clear.
Shelf life is not just a quality issue. It is a revenue issue. It determines how far you can deliver, how many customers you can serve, and how much of what you harvest becomes invoiced product. The study shows that without cooling, summer turf is largely limited to same-day, local delivery. With vacuum cooling, that window extends to around 2–2.5 days, making next-day regional delivery realistic. Add refrigerated transport, and the study projects a 3–5 plus day window. In winter, vacuum cooling plus a cool room allows growers to build inventory and decouple harvest from dispatch.
There is also a direct efficiency benefit inside the farm gate. The report notes that if 5–10% of harvested turf is lost to heat damage or missed delivery windows, a business selling 100 pallets a day may need to harvest 105–110 pallets just to fulfil demand. That means water, labour, fertiliser, land use and fuel are all being spent on product that never reaches a paying customer. Vacuum cooling helps eliminate that waste. It allows growers to sell more of what they already grow, harvest in smarter batches, reduce the ‘race against the clock,’ and grow revenue without proportional increases in production cost.
Even the operating cost strengthens the case. The study estimates indicative operating expenditure at around AUD $3.60 per pallet, or under AUD $0.10 per square metre, including energy, maintenance and labour. For growers, the decision becomes less about whether cooling costs money and more about whether a modest per-pallet cost is worth gaining extra saleable days, wider delivery reach, reduced waste and stronger customer confidence.
One of the most interesting findings came after visual saleability had ended. In the summer trial, Coolabah planted test pieces from the vacuum-cooled pallet on Day 6, after it had already been classified as unsaleable. By Day 21, the turf showed clear regrowth and root establishment. That suggests biological viability may outlast visual saleability, opening another commercial benefit: reduced waste and lower financial risk on stock that misses its original retail window.
Vacuum Cooling is no longer just a promising technology – it is already delivering these results for growers worldwide. Now that it has been tested with Australian turf, it shows what it can do under real conditions, with real turf, in real operations.
The next step is easier than ever. Heuch now offers a lease-to-own model in partnership with Finlease, giving growers a practical pathway to adopt the technology without carrying the full upfront capital burden.
Last year, we introduced vacuum cooling. This year, we can say something much more powerful: the proof you were after is here.
Scan this QR code to explore our small, medium and large vacuum cooling systems, download the full trial results, and see what a lease-to-own pathway could look like for your operations.
