<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Damian writes:

> In Australia, many new olive growers have been sold the line, that if they
just
> train the trees to a single trunk, and prune to an open vase or monocone
> (depending on variety and adviser), then mechanical harvesting will be
straight
> forward and efficient!! This is reflected in the harvest costings of some
> investment schemes, research reports and scoping studies, where harvesting
costs
> of $200-300 per ha or $25-$35 per tonne are common place.

Well, I tend to agree with his cautious approach!

Nor would I like to be Kiljoy, but if anyone can tell me of established
orchards of Frantoio, Leccino, etc. regularly being successfully
mechanically harvested at the quarter- to halfripe stage, I'd very much like
to hear from them. It's very easy to make all sorts of projections in glossy
handouts, but how much fruit has actually successfully been harvested at $25
per tonne?!

I've seen many hand-held or tractor-mounted Heath-Robinson arrangements in
Europe, and some of them do work acceptably for large-fruited, fully ripe
cultivars (or those with unusually low FRF's), but I've yet to see something
upon which I'll confidently pin my hopes for the type of trees we have.
Invariably a very substantial proportion of fruit has to be hand-harvested
anyway. I do better by low-flying my chopper over the orchards!

So, for the forseeable future, we're doing everything by hand, as we have
been doing on our farms since 1925 (and using it as a marketing tool!).

Most of the development work on large mechanical harvesters (orbital
shakers) has probably taken place in California. I recall that the OMC
Company over there has had these man-sized shakers around for decades (also
used for harvesting various nuts, like pecans). Maybe Steve Sibbitt can
inform us on the current status of mechanical harvesting of olives in the
States, although I don't know if they've had much experience in harvesting
small-fruited oil cultivars. Probably only the larger-fruited Mission &
Manzanilla.

For really successful full mechanical harvesting, one might eventually have
to follow the route of high-density dwarfed trees planted in the form of
narrow hedgerows, and harvested by a straddling-type machine, a-la the
grape, coffee and berry harvesters of the likes of Braud, Korovan, etc.
However, this will probably require more than just compatible dwarfing
rootstocks for existing cultivars. And it will no doubt bring along a whole
new set of problems. By nature, the olive tree prefers as much space and
sunshine as possible, so as to reduce too much vegetative and upright
growth, and to encourage yields of quality fruit. High-density plantings do
not promote this. Brian will probably be able to tell us if they've been
successful with this concept in Italy. Or maybe we'll learn something at
Bari.

O.K. So shoot me down!

Regards,

Guido
</pre>
</td></tr></table>