So that you need to begin reaping your harvest, however you’re unsure the place to begin?
Sam Knapp constructed Offbeet Farm, a winter storage farm in inside Alaska, from the bottom up. Learn on for a way he breaks down the choices of harvesting instruments for each small- or large-scale operations.
Past the Root Cellar is the inspiring information that proves that—with a bit ingenuity—the savvy grower can efficiently choose, harvest, retailer, and promote greens all through the low season, offering their household and group the native meals they want throughout winter months.
The next excerpt is from Past the Root Cellar by Sam Knapp. It has been tailored for the net.
Featured Picture: Harvest conveyors enable crew members harvesting a number of rows to shortly and safely ship veggies to reap bins on a trailer with out strolling backwards and forwards or tossing veggies by the air. Photograph courtesy of Martin’s Produce Provides.
Harvest Instruments
Whereas there could also be some overlap with different vegetable farms, farms that target storage crops often have specialised instruments and gear to make the harvest simpler and quicker. Practically all storage crops are cumbersome and heavy. Many storage crops develop no less than partially underground and should be dug out. Most instruments and gear for harvest both show you how to dig up crops or transfer them from place to position extra effectively. Some instruments are widespread to most farms, whereas others are extra particular to both small- or large-scale farms.
As storage farms develop and develop, many are on the seek for an gear candy spot.
The aim of equipment is nearly at all times to make duties quicker, extra environment friendly, and extra ergonomic to staff. Machines include prices, some apparent and a few not, and any farmer ought to estimate price financial savings when contemplating a brand new piece of equipment.
- How a lot does it price in labor, gasoline, time, and so forth to do a job at present, and the way will that change with the brand new gear?
- Are these financial savings definitely worth the prices of the gear?
- How a lot labor is out there, and would you slightly rent staff or use a quicker machine?
- Will the gear stop hidden prices, corresponding to future medical payments or lack of bodily skill resulting from damage or overuse?
Machines and gear ought to match not solely your finances and scale, but additionally your objectives and values.
Reducing instruments are discovered on most each farm, no matter measurement. These are easy knives and pruners for reducing and trimming crops within the area. Knife kinds are a private selection. For instance, some farmers desire lettuce- or broccoli-style harvest knives—which have sharpened and squared-off or rounded suggestions—for cabbages.
A potpourri of harvest knives at Offbeet Farm. Those with shiny orange markings—both paint or flagging—are more likely to be discovered if misplaced within the area.
Photograph courtesy of Phil Knapp.
These enable staff to chop by stalks with a pushing movement that makes use of the shoulder slightly than the wrist. Many farmers additionally desire pruning shears over knives for harvesting winter squash and pumpkins. Even when stems aren’t corky, there’s no telling what you may hit after reducing by a resistant squash stalk (one other squash, irrigation strains, or worse).
With each knives and pruners, it’s necessary to maintain them sharp, and I often carry a sharpener in my again pocket. Sharp knives and pruners are safer to make use of than uninteresting ones, and so they make cleaner cuts much less prone to appeal to pathogens in storage.
It’s additionally a good suggestion to connect shiny colours to those small and easily-lost instruments! Whether or not meaning spray paint, tape, or flagging, you’ll thank your self for doing this when a device instantly disappears.
There are a number of instruments that assist loosen soil in order that belowground crops are simpler to tug by hand later.
On the hand scale, there are each digging forks and broadforks. Digging forks, additionally referred to as spading forks, are nice instruments for a lot of duties, from loosening carrots to digging potatoes. They’re straightforward to make use of and cheap, however they’re comparatively sluggish.
Broadforks are a quicker hand-scale possibility. They’re often two to 3 instances wider than conventional digging forks, however they typically price significantly extra. Though you should utilize common broadforks for harvesting, the harvest-specific broadforks are greatest. Their tines are nearer collectively—to scale back the danger of tines slipping by the soil and damaging crops—and narrower, so that they’re lighter and simpler to push into the bottom.
The go-to instruments on bigger, tractor-scale farms are undercutter bars, additionally referred to as mattress lifters. These are easy, comparatively cheap implements mounted to the three-point hitch on full-sized tractors. The “bar” is pulled by the soil at depths of 12 to 16 inches to raise and loosen the soil above (therefore the identify).
Many farms with out extra specialised harvesting gear run undercutter bars beneath their deep-rooted crops to make hand-pulling simpler and quicker. I’ve additionally heard of farms utilizing subsoilers to loosen soil round crops like garlic, however undercutter bars are much more widespread. Sadly, two-wheeled tractors don’t have sufficient weight or traction to tug undercutter bars by the soil. Many have tried it, and plenty of have failed.
Tractor-Run Harvesters
Each for two-wheeled and full-sized tractors, there are extra particular harvesting implements designed for single or a number of crops, although there are fewer choices for two-wheeled tractors. Each BCS and Aldo Biagioli promote comparatively cheap root-digging plows for two-wheeled tractors, however the common consensus is that these apply primarily to potatoes. You’ll want so as to add weight to the twowheeled tractors—often wheel weights—and the diggers go solely as deep because the soil has not too long ago been labored.
The potato harvest at Open Door Farm in Cedar Grove, North Carolina, assisted by a single-row potato digger.
Photograph courtesy of Jillian Mickens.
Crops corresponding to candy potatoes, carrots, and daikon radishes are sometimes rooted too deeply and are broken by these diggers, whereas extra shallowly rooted crops corresponding to beets, turnips, and onions don’t require sufficient soil-loosening to warrant such a device. These implements could be helpful for garlic and sunchokes if pushed alongside the rows.
There are additionally PTO-powered potato diggers for walk-behind tractors, however they, too, have a depth limitation. The producers recommend that you just plant potatoes shallowly and depend on hilling to successfully use these harvesters.
Potato diggers for full-sized tractors are a few of the hottest harvesting implements on the market. They’re comparatively cheap and easy to run and restore, typically missing any hydraulic elements. Storage farmers use them for potatoes, after all, however they’re additionally efficient at harvesting candy potatoes and sunchokes.
Most farmers I’ve talked to make use of Spedo-brand diggers. The best and most cost-effective mannequin is a one-row shaker, which sieves out soil and lifts tubers to the floor. It’s just like the walk-behind digger however can dig as much as 12 inches into unhilled soil. That mentioned, each weeds and moist soils are inclined to thwart this fashion of harvester.
As one farmer I spoke with reported, the vibrating diggers wrestle to separate soil clumps and find yourself slicing by sections of moist or weedy soil with out really sifting out the spuds. Spedo (and different corporations) additionally promote chain-style diggers, which use chain conveyors to take away soil from round tubers earlier than depositing them on the soil floor.
Chain diggers are dearer however can typically harvest a number of rows without delay and work in a greater diversity of soil circumstances than shaker-style diggers. There are additionally bigger chain-style harvesters that incorporate options corresponding to sorting areas for staff and the power to hold and fill bulk pallet bins.
Carrots dangle from the harvest belts of a Scott Viner on Meals Farm in Wrenshall, Minnesota.
Photograph courtesy of Janaki Fisher-Merritt.
Scott Viner Harvesters
The FMC Scott Viner (generally referred to as the Scott Viner) is by far the preferred root harvester amongst small-scale storage farmers. Each storage farmer I talked to who mechanically harvested their carrots, beets, and different roots both had used or was at present utilizing a Scott Viner. Initially designed for beet harvesting within the Nineteen Thirties, Scott Viners are used right this moment for harvesting carrots, beets, radishes, parsnips, turnips, and even rutabagas, relying on modifications to the machine.
Their recognition is due partially to their performance, but additionally to their worth. As a result of they’re not manufactured and most are previous, they’re comparatively low cost so far as implements go. The latest machine I may discover on the market was made within the Nineteen Seventies.
That mentioned, they’re comparatively easy machines, and if a farmer is keen to switch hydraulic strains, grease or substitute bearings, and resurface rusty metallic, older Scott Viners do their jobs admirably. They’re additionally versatile and may be modified to work inside a particular farm’s techniques.
Scott Viners work by working a digging shoe beneath a row of roots—let’s say carrots for instance. On the identical time, a set of rubber belts pinch carrot tops simply above the crowns and raise them from the bottom. The belts run backward and up, the carrots dangling by their tops, towards a knife that cuts the tops and drops the carrots onto a sequence conveyor. The tops are shot out the again of the machine whereas the roots are conveyed away, the soil bouncing by the chains. Some farmers drive a wagon alongside the harvester for the carrots to drop into containers, whereas others modify the conveyor to spit carrots out behind the machine.
Scott Viners and comparable harvesters can turbocharge the speed of harvest for deep-rooted crops like carrots. A number of farmers reported that one quick employee can harvest between 200 and 250 kilos of carrots per hour on a clear mattress that’s been loosened by an undercutter bar. With a well-functioning Scott Viner, the everyday price will increase to 2,500 to three,000 kilos per hour.
Nevertheless, working the Scott Viner may require three to 4 individuals: one to drive the tractor, one to function the Scott Viner, one to funnel carrots into bins, and one to tug a wagon alongside the machine. Scott Viners additionally require comparatively clear and dry fields. Weeds have a tendency to dam up the topping mechanism and might make it tough to see and align the machine to the row. The machine additionally has bother staying aligned and pulling roots from heavy, moist soils. Many farmers working Scott Viners or comparable machines shift their harvest dates to extend their probabilities for dry climate.
There are newer machines just like FMC Scott Viners that require fewer individuals to function. One widespread instance is from the Canadian firm Univerco. Their smallest root harvester may be operated by a single one that drives the tractor and operates the machine whereas the implement fills bulk pallet bins. These machines can even offload full bins with a hydraulic platform raise. Though such machines are dearer than Scott Viners, they sometimes run with fewer mechanical points and have decrease labor prices to function.
Supplies Dealing with at Harvest
Harvest is often the primary level within the storage course of when supplies dealing with turns into a problem. Storage crops are typically bulkier, heavier, and fewer precious by weight than their fresh-marketed cousins. To be a profitable storage farmer, you want to have the ability to raise and transfer heavy objects from place to position shortly and safely.
I like to consider the method of shifting crops out of the sphere and into storage like a river system.
Furthest upstream are the small drainages and tributaries amassing water from small swales and ravines. These are like veggies passing by the palms of staff as they harvest small sections of the sphere. As water strikes downhill, the small streams be a part of collectively to type bigger rivers. These are like veggies from particular person sections of the sphere aggregated collectively for processing steps corresponding to washing or curing. Ultimately, an increasing number of tributaries be a part of to type giant and highly effective rivers that drain total watersheds. After processing, we place veggies inside our largest bulk containers and funnel them inside our storage areas the place they continue to be for weeks to months. What begins as a trickle turns into a mighty river of greens collected in a single place.
There are two principal items to the puzzle of supplies dealing with at harvest (and on the whole): the containers used to carry crops and the gear used to maneuver them.
Containers and dealing with gear are linked; the containers you employ affect your choices for dealing with gear, and vice versa. This relationship additionally extends to the gear and strategies used for processing steps earlier than storage.
The harvest cart at Offbeet Farm is the primary means we transfer veggies from the sphere to the wash station. Photograph courtesy of Phil Knapp.
Let’s begin with choices for materials-handling gear.
On the hand scale are issues like wheelbarrows and carts. At Offbeet Farm, we principally use a modified backyard cart to move veggies from the sphere to the wash station. This permits us to maneuver about 200 kilos at a time with minimal effort, as long as hundreds are effectively balanced.
Carts and wheelbarrows often have limitations for each the burden and top (when stacking a number of containers) as a result of the person suggestions them at an angle along with lifting them, and that is very true when utilizing them on hills. There are some revolutionary designs for well-balanced and ergonomic carts, corresponding to these popularized by Josh Volk of Sluggish Hand Farm.
Small trailers pulled by walk-behind tractors, ATVs, lawnmowers, pickup vans, and full-sized tractors are good choices for carrying bigger, heavier hundreds than is feasible with hand carts. Nevertheless, trailers are much less nimble than carts, requiring extra space to show round and extra ability to run in reverse. Pickup vans, or any autos with beds, are additionally nice choices for transporting veggies out of the sphere. Many farms outfit their tractors or skid steers with forks to both transfer giant pallets or bulk bins all through the sphere or to stack the bins on trailers for hauling.
Containers for harvesting and transporting veggies are often both very small or very giant.
On the small finish, many farms use 5-gallon buckets or bulb crates for harvesting. That’s as a result of these containers are comparatively low cost and simply moved, saved, and lifted. I personally advocate for utilizing small harvest containers as a result of it locations bodily limits on how a lot you may raise at anybody time. Even some giant storage farms use 5-gallon buckets as direct harvest containers and switch the veggies into bigger containers later.
Bigger harvest containers are often bulk, pallet-sized bins corresponding to plastic macrobins. Staff can harvest instantly into bulk bins if the bins are pushed by the sphere on forks, or they will empty smaller containers into close by bulk bins. These are the go-to containers for farms utilizing mechanical harvesters and time-saving gear like harvest conveyors. Some farmers use the identical containers for each harvest and storage, whereas others have particular containers for every job.
Whereas your harvest containers will affect your choices for dealing with gear and vice versa, this relationship isn’t equal.
I recommend prioritizing dealing with gear when contemplating upgrades. Bigger and stronger dealing with gear will prevent time by lowering the variety of journeys wanted to take away your crops from the sphere, and, most significantly, giant dealing with gear can accommodate any container measurement.
This isn’t true within the different route; giant containers aren’t suitable with small-scale dealing with instruments. Moreover, dealing with gear upgrades are sometimes inexpensive than container upgrades. That is very true when buying bulk storage bins, which may be a number of hundred {dollars} every. In fact, upgrading each containers and dealing with instruments concurrently is ok, however in the event you’re restricted by your finances, buy higher dealing with gear first.
Harvest Conveyors
Harvest conveyors are helpful for extra than simply storage crops however are very fashionable amongst farmers rising plenty of cabbage or winter squash. The machines include increase arms extending 20 toes or extra off a harvest trailer with a conveyor belt that strikes crops from the sphere to the trailer. Often, a number of staff harvest alongside area rows because the conveyor strikes slowly down the sphere. One additional particular person is required to run the conveyor and direct veggies coming off it into containers. The fantastic thing about this technique is that staff don’t want to hold (or toss, as many farm crews do) squash or cabbage heads between the rows and the trailer or containers.
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