Author	[Modern View]
Dick2 01-12-2013 04:58:10 174.19.205.113 Report to Moderator	I've been telling people that the growers need to invest in research and development to design new machines to harvest crops that tradionally been harvested by hand. I saw last week on America's Heartland that a lettuce grower in CA has designed a machine that harvests lettuce. It uses high pressure water jets to cut the lettuce, that it then moves to the sorting table on the machine. Instead of a crew of people cutting off the lettuce, there are only a couple of people riding that machine to sort out rejects and foreign material. The same company also designed their own processing machines to wash and pack the lettuce. They move all of the equipment to Yuma when it it time to harvest the lettuce there. I'm sure they have reduced the need for manual labor substantially. Wonder what products will be harvested next by a new machine? [Reply]   [No Email]
rrlund 01-12-2013 08:43:49 207.241.137.116 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Dick2, 01-12-2013 04:58:10   Don't know about produce,but if celulosic ethanol ever becomes a reality,I think you'll eventually see a machine that harvests the whole corn plant. It'll put the grain in one tank,the cob somewhere else,maybe in a truck along side and might bale the stalks,either in large rounds,of more likely large squares since they're easier to haul. Of course then Deere will steal the patent and have enough lawyers to get away with it. [Reply]  [No Email]
Paul 01-12-2013 10:01:35 66.44.133.112 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to rrlund, 01-12-2013 08:43:49   Vermeer, Case, and one other company have had demos and worked on a couple different designs to harvest the cobs while combining corn. The thought is the cobs are easy to handle, and provide a uniform feedstock for ethanol, and remove an even amount of material per acre, leaving the stalks for soil building. One has a bin up above, one has a trailer, was a couple years ago now. They just need to get a better return on the ethanol side, still not a good efficiency deal yet. Paul [Reply]  [No Email]
Paul 01-12-2013 10:05:10 66.44.133.112 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Paul, 01-12-2013 10:01:35   http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/news/columns/biofuels-economics/biofuel-economics-corn-cob-harvest-demonstration Here's a link. Paul [Reply]  [No Email]
Eldon (WA) 01-12-2013 10:38:26 98.225.11.231 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Paul, 01-12-2013 10:05:10   Quoting Removed, click Modern View to see Interesting link. I'm surprised no one has found a way to pelletize cobs for heating purposes given the high btu content. We used to burn cobs in the wood stove when I was a kid...wore out many pairs of gloves stuffing them into buckets and hauling them into the basement. We used them to start the fire....I remember they burned hot! We also used them in a tank heater in the stock tank. [Reply]  [No Email]
rrlund 01-12-2013 13:01:30 207.241.137.116 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Eldon (WA), 01-12-2013 10:38:26   My guess,honestly. It's never been done because there's never been a government grant to do it. Not high tech enough to "create thousands of new jobs". [Reply]  [No Email]
Tony in Mass. 01-12-2013 07:41:04 76.127.225.182 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Dick2, 01-12-2013 04:58:10   Produce guys are in a hard place. No machines like this? need labor- not full time, just seasonal. Seasonal is sometimes illegals. So feds get on ya. So growers dream up machines again. Seems alot of the illegals that hang around forever, (until they are allowed to vote and thro elections?) came about as harvesting machines in the 80's and 90's started to cut down on the picking jobs, they got the drift there may not be a sponser next season... so safest thing to do was show up in the states legally, as a temp, but forget to ever go home... now even someone with a second grade education in another language stares the ceiling thinking they were replaced by a computor... but they ain't going home either. [Reply]  [No Email]
ericlb 01-12-2013 06:58:15 75.107.64.57 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Dick2, 01-12-2013 04:58:10   id be looking for a fully remote control harvester, there already about there with gps guidance, the next logical step would be no operater at all leaving the modern farmer to relax in comfort and rest, all while his combine rolls around the clock, needing to only have his hirlings or kids keep the grain wagons up with the combine, i could even see remote control tractors too, but i think your still going to need the human touch to line up the wagon under the combines auger dont see how electronics are going to do that , of course when it all goes wrong due to the whole electronics being made overseas you will wreck at least a half million dollars worth of machines [Reply]  [No Email]
massey 333 01-12-2013 07:19:41 209.173.189.232 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to ericlb, 01-12-2013 06:58:15   John Deere already has the remote(unmaned) tractor controls that brings the auger cart to the combine unloading and then goes back and parks until the next command.CIH may have theirs out by now. [Reply]  [No Email]
Ken Macfarlane 01-12-2013 06:45:20 207.219.69.137 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Dick2, 01-12-2013 04:58:10   I'd like to see a small roomba type robot that can quietly patrol row crops and pull weeds manually day and night and goes to charge automatically when needed. [Reply]  [No Email]
gtractorfan 01-12-2013 06:15:20 71.66.229.3 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Dick2, 01-12-2013 04:58:10   Related to this question, farm show this morning said soon combines will send crop yield information to a compilation center as you harvest. [Reply]  [No Email]
GeneMO 01-12-2013 05:49:56 71.1.106.8 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Dick2, 01-12-2013 04:58:10   Marijuana harvester Gene [Reply]  [No Email]
todd hamilton 01-12-2013 10:41:30 71.88.208.161 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to GeneMO, 01-12-2013 05:49:56   farm out man! 8) [Reply]  [No Email]
todd hamilton 01-12-2013 10:39:25 71.88.208.161 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to GeneMO, 01-12-2013 05:49:56   farm out man! 8) [Reply]  [No Email]
Mike M 01-12-2013 09:49:17 184.20.169.244 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to GeneMO, 01-12-2013 05:49:56   That is what I was thinking too. Since it is becoming legal again. [Reply]  [No Email]
Kyle in ky 01-12-2013 07:01:32 212.21.40.91 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to GeneMO, 01-12-2013 05:49:56   That one is already invented, it's the local police departments, DEA and government officials! [Reply]  [No Email]
Dachshund 01-12-2013 05:49:06 216.139.126.249 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Dick2, 01-12-2013 04:58:10   Manufacturers have been designing machines to pick our pockets for years..... [Reply]  [No Email]
John B. 01-12-2013 05:09:43 38.114.64.177 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Dick2, 01-12-2013 04:58:10   Hard telling what new machine will be next. The sad part about a harvester is like the string bean combine. You only get one crop off the plants, because the combine gobbles up the plant along with the harvested beans. The real money is where you get multiple pickings off a given vegetable plant/crop, such as the green beans, berries, asparagus, squash, peppers, tomatoes. Sweet-corn, potatoes, popcorn for an example are a one time crop producer. Once you pick the plant's produce it's done for the season. It doesn't produce any more. [Reply]  [No Email]
rabbit 01-12-2013 06:43:07 207.241.137.116 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to John B., 01-12-2013 05:09:43   Asparagras is a limited time crop. Only viable for a few days to a week, or so. Some of the farmers around here have a sledge with a very sharp blade on the front. Hitch it behind the tractor and go like the dickens! Maybe another pass in a week or so. Others have a motorized cart with wings over the rows. Workers ride the wings, hand cutting the shoots by hand - very labor intensive. String beans, green peas, pretty much mature at the same time. Lots of those grown here for a nationally/world known baby food manufacturer. One pass harvesting with a crew of harvesters. See them parade by here complete by with self contained portable shop, passing between the various fields. Lots of dump trucks full of product. [Reply]  [No Email]
Greg K 01-12-2013 08:57:13 99.196.64.57 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to rabbit, 01-12-2013 06:43:07   There has been talk of trying to genetically modify corn so that it is a perennial plant and then harvest off of the same plant repeatedly. It would save planting and tillage in some areas, but require a different method of harvest. [Reply]  [No Email]
Greg K 01-12-2013 08:57:10 99.196.64.57 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to rabbit, 01-12-2013 06:43:07   There has been talk of trying to genetically modify corn so that it is a perennial plant and then harvest off of the same plant repeatedly. It would save planting and tillage in some areas, but require a different method of harvest. [Reply]  [No Email]
Greg K 01-12-2013 08:56:20 99.196.64.57 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to rabbit, 01-12-2013 06:43:07   There has been talk of trying to genetically modify corn so that it is a perennial plant and then harvest off of the same plant repeatedly. It would save planting and tillage in some areas, but require a different method of harvest. [Reply]  [No Email]
Dr. Ed 01-12-2013 10:27:41 71.213.145.7 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Greg K, 01-12-2013 08:56:20   Cotton used to be grown that way as it is a true perennial. Problem was the boll weevil and the pink boll worm loved it as they could over-winter in the live plant and have a head start the next year. Nowadays it is state law in every cotton producing state that the cotton stalks (still live plants) must be "plowed down" i.e roots pulled loose and killed, by mid winter. This law really helped with plant borne diseases and insects. [Reply]  [No Email]
Greg K 01-12-2013 10:44:24 99.196.64.57 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Dr. Ed, 01-12-2013 10:27:41   That makes sense. Seems like for every "improvement" there are 2 more problems that pop up. That is an interesting fact that I had no idea of. [Reply]  [No Email]
Greg K 01-12-2013 09:45:35 75.104.160.54 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Greg K, 01-12-2013 08:56:20   I don't know why it posted 3 times. [Reply]  [No Email]
Ralphwd45 01-12-2013 19:32:45 66.243.215.13 Report to Moderator	Re: What harvest machine will they invent next? in reply to Greg K, 01-12-2013 09:45:35   I think I know why it posted 3 times Greg! It has been so ungodly slow to post for me, that I forget that I clicked once, and come back from the kitchen with a cup of coffee, and click again, or maybe the bathroom.I sent Kim a message several days ago, about this, and have had no answer. No problems with the cattle forun, or Ford truck forum. [Reply]  [No Email]