12/29/2023 0 Comments Pro shred and apple cider![]() ![]() This study demonstrates the potential for mechanical harvesting to reduce cider apple growing costs across a wide range of orchard scales. While profitable at current labor rates, mechanical harvesting became even more profitable under scenarios of increasing wages. Thus, medium and large capacity harvesters offered the greatest reductions in harvest costs, reducing cumulative costs by more than 50% in comparison to hand harvesting. Increasing orchard size resulted in greater returns from mechanical harvesting for all harvester models. The findings show that with appropriately sized equipment, farmers can effectively reduce harvesting costs in comparison to hand harvesting on orchards as small as five acres. Sensitivity analyses were used to test the cost differential for using each piece of machinery on varying orchard sizes and to model changes in labor costs. The team developed a partial budget model, which is also available as a plug-and-play tool online, comparing the costs of using small, medium, and large capacity mechanical harvesting machinery to hand harvesting over the expected 30-year lifespan of the machinery. ![]() Researchers in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University, led by Gregory Peck, Associate Professor of Horticulture, Sustainable Fruit Production Systems are working to address the challenges of sustainably and profitably producing fruit trees. Adoption of this technology has the potential to greatly reduce production costs, increase the profitability of growing cider-specific cultivars, and support a burgeoning cider industry in the U.S. While mechanical harvesting equipment is available for purchase within the U.S., it is currently not widely used. In Europe, which has a well-established hard cider industry, a wide selection of mechanical harvesting equipment with varying work capacities has been developed and nearly all European cider apples are harvested in this manner. ![]()
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