|
||
How It Works
More Illustrations of the 4 row harvester
Determining the cost of mechanically harvesting asparagus
The Challenges of machine harvesting asparagus
Meeting the challenges and
solving the problems
Sample Cost-of-Harvesting
Spreadsheets
How Much Money Can I
Make Using a Machine To Harvest My Crop?
Asparagus harvester movie clips
Pictures of Asparagus Fields
Machine harvest your asparagus!
A selective harvester for green asparagus.
 Photo Illustration of the Geiger Lund 4 row selective mechanical asparagus harvester. For more views of the SP-2010 Asparagus Harvester... More Harvester Pics |
Our new harvester, the model SP-2010, is not in production. It is a made-to-order machine.
You specify your row centers and we will build you the machine.
The machine will fit fields with row centers from 36 inches up and will harvest on flat ground or raised beds.
The SP-2010 is a simple to operate machine that is easy to use and easy to repair should anything go wrong.
The acreage a machine will do in a day depends on the row spacing and machine speed. With center-to-center spacings of 48 inches @ 1.5 mph the machine will cover about 2.9 acres per hour.
At 2mph it will cover 3.88 acres per hour, and at 2.5 mph the machine would harvest 4.8 acres per hour.
The top speed of the machine is not established at this point, but depends on variables such as crop density, soil conditions, and other factors.
An asparagus harvester requires two men for operation; one man to drive the tractor and one to sort the asparagus and pack it into crates. A typical figure I've seen for hand harvesting is two hours for one man to harvest one acre. If the machine is running at 1.5 mph then it is harvesting the same amount of asparagus as approximately 6 men. At 2 mph it does the work of approximately 8 men.
The SP-2010 obtains all of its power from a PTO pump mounted on the PTO shaft of the tractor. The horsepower requirements of the machine will be around 12 to 15 horsepower allowing the use of very small tractors. The tongue weight will be around 800 pounds so again, a large tractor is not necessary. The total weight of the harvester will be about 8,000 pounds.
Determining the cost of mechanically harvesting asparagus
Cost of Harvesting Sample Spreadsheets
The Challenges of machine harvesting asparagus
Meeting the challenges and solving the problems
Improvements over the 2006 model
Photo of our experimental harvester in 2006
Picture of our tractor-pull type experimental single row selective mechanical asparagus
harvester.
See a short movie clip of the machine in
operation. Shows a side view of the machine cutting and picking up
asparagus spears.
Side
View Clip: Harvesting Asparagus
Here is a longer clip: Big Side View Clip 3
The harvested spears are clean
and undamaged. The harvester is very gentle. Washington
State University studied the effects of harvester on the harvested
spears even after putting them in cold storage for over a week.
They found no damage from machine harvesting the spears.
The machine requires only minimal maintenance, consisting mainly of checking the hydraulic fluid level and the air filter.
There are no grease fittings to grease or chains
to oil. All of the ball bearings used are sealed bearings with very
light loads and are run at low rpm resulting in extremely long life.
The fully repairable air cylinders are built more like heavy duty
hydraulic cylinders than air cylinders, with large 5/8 inch diameter
stainless steel piston rods and heavy wall steel tubing barrels with
welded on heads.
The cylinders run on dry
air thus there are no lubricators to fill or maintain.
The conveyors run at slow speeds, have virtually no load, and are
V-belt guided for trouble free operation and long life.
The air compressor is a standard piston type compressor rated for a
100% duty cycle. The life of these compressors is typically
50,000 hours. Occasional cleaning of the air filter is
the only maintenance.
Please check out the videos of the harvester:
Movie clips They are
worth viewing.
Or visit YouTube and search for "Asparagus Harvester".
Want to contact me?
All patent rights reserved.