Michigan man's invention may change apple picking
Brown, who has been developing the machine for the past six years, said it also has the ability to transform apple-picking into a round-the-clock activity. Hand-pickers generally work from dawn to dusk. "We've had a lot of different versions," said Brown as he watched his latest edition crawl through an orchard west of Sparta that is owned by Riveridge Fruit Marketing Inc. Brown also has a similar machine operating in Washington, the nation's leading apple producer.
Riveridge CEO Don Armock invited reporters and fruit buyers from Meijer Inc. to the orchard on Thursday to watch a demonstration of the machine he has been field-testing this year. "We wanted to help Phil Brown take this equipment from the testing phase into a fast-paced real-life harvest," Armock said. "With Michigan expecting 30 million bushels of apples this year, the trees are loaded with fruit to test these conveyance devices."
Brown's machine, which was developed to take advantage of the industry's trend toward thinner vertical trees, has three components to improve the apple harvesting process. Brown said he will be ready to make his harvesting system commercially available in 2014. While the price of the machine has not yet been set, Brown estimated it will be around $150,000. The self-propelled platform system also can be used during the off-season, when trees need to be trimmed, trellised and thinned, Brown said.
Source: sacbee.com
