How agriculture works thread

[ptsg]

Grape harvesting in Italy:

 

[5030]

Like the well worn saying says... Farm until you go broke... I suspect a lot of farmers will do just that this upcoming year with the cost of diesel fuel what it is as well as the cost of inputs as well as seed and the depressed return on row crops presently.

 

[Torvy]

Depends entirely on the crop pocked actually. Cabbage is 100% had pocked, so are sauce tomatoes and green peppers.

Au Contraire Mon ami,

 

[5030]

Not here, besides that is in Europe anyway. Here, migrant's do the picking, not machines.

 

[Torvy]

Not here, besides that is in Europe anyway. Here, migrant's do the picking, not machines.

That used to be true, not so much anymore...since about 2004 more commercial growers are going mechanical.

 

[5030]

Again, not here and this is cabbage country. Most growers double crop.

 

[Creamer]

Grape harvesting in Italy:

I sure wish they would show more detail about how they get the grapes off and separated. It looks like a a lot of juice or water when they dumpe plus the stuff off the top of the roller beds falls into the trailer. I am kind of confused as to exactly what is happening. Kind of like the green pea harvesting videos I have seen.

 

[ptsg]

I sure wish they would show more detail about how they get the grapes off and separated. It looks like a a lot of juice or water when they dumpe plus the stuff off the top of the roller beds falls into the trailer. I am kind of confused as to exactly what is happening. Kind of like the green pea harvesting videos I have seen.

This harvesting process is straightly done to make wine out of the grapes, hence why you see a lot of juice because it's inevitable that the grapes will get squished.

I'll see if I can find a more in dept video on these machines. There is a lot going on in the middle of the machine, that's for sure.

EDIT: Here is a cool animation video showing how it works:

 

[sixdogs]

My cousin has a juice grape farm and runs similar harvesters. The high crop harvester rides over the top of the row and plastic fingers shake the grapes onto a conveyor that dumps them into a dump wagon being pulled into the next row.

What that wagon is full, another pulls up and the full wagon dumps into a semi waiting. When the semi is full, it heads off to the plant where it is unloaded for processing. Then back to the farm for more.


The harvesting is timed to processing demand and speed so farmers are notified when their grapes are expected at the plant. The plants run 24/7 during harvest so it's as common to be there at 3:00AM as it is at 2:00PM. Every day is different.

 

[Creamer]

This harvesting process is straightly done to make wine out of the grapes, hence why you see a lot of juice because it's inevitable that the grapes will get squished.

I'll see if I can find a more in dept video on these machines. There is a lot going on in the middle of the machine, that's for sure.

EDIT: Here is a cool animation video showing how it works:

That is a great animation. It is hard to believe those bars flexing as they do knock the bunches of grapes off.