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<pre>I have seen a number of pictures of "over the row harvesters" for
grapes, usually with a caption about how they are being modified for
Olive Harvesting. Has anyone seen one of these machines in action? Do
they use them for grapes in the Hunter Valley, if so does anyone know
who has one so I could have a look at it.

Howard Long
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<pre>Phil,

Thanks for info, could I have his Web address please.

Howard

-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Bramley [mailto:bramleyp@one.net.au]
Sent: Monday, 31 January 2000 22:43
To: OliveOil@onelist.com
Subject: RE: [OliveOil] Over the row harvesters

From: "Phil Bramley" <bramleyp@one.net.au>

Howard,

Dr Michael Burr refers to these new/modified over the
row grape/olive
harvesters and it might be worth giving him a call in
Adelaide or go to his
web site and post the query. (details if required)..

Regards,

PhilB


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<pre>Howard,

Dr Michael Burr refers to these new/modified over the row grape/olive
harvesters and it might be worth giving him a call in Adelaide or go to his
web site and post the query. (details if required)..

Regards,

PhilB
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<pre>Of course.

http://www.senet.com.au/~betaburr/MB_home.html

Good luck.

PhilB
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<pre>>From: Howard Long <hlong@dts.com.au>
>
>I have seen a number of pictures of "over the row harvesters" for
>grapes, usually with a caption about how they are being modified for
>Olive Harvesting. Has anyone seen one of these machines in action? Do
>they use them for grapes in the Hunter Valley, if so does anyone know
>who has one so I could have a look at it.
>
>Howard Long


I've never seen an over the row harvester at work in the Hunter, but I have
seen them in Griffith. They are better suited to big, heavy crops such as
the MIA & Riverland than the dry low-yield Hunter.

Mike Wilson.
Pokolbin, Hunter valley.
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<pre>Row spacing and harvesting seem to take up an inordinate amount of brain
power and create stress for olive growers.

Firstly if there is unlimited water then you can consider greater
densities
Secondly increased densities as suggested by researchers in Europe has
evolved from lack of avilable land and competing uses.

In Australia there is plenty of land with suitable soils and climatic
conditions that will support olive growing albeit low rainfall, but the
water resource is limited.

Secondly there are two broad systems of olive growing.

System 1 - Traditional 100-300 trees/ha
System 2 - High density 300-1000 trees/ha

As a consequence there is a need for appropriate mechanical harvesting
equipment.

Now in system 1 the training of trees for shaking is a great improvement
- but this not suitable for table olives where they have to be picked by
hand to give quality products. If the olives are going to be used for
olive paste or tapenade this is not a problem. Also grape harvesting
eqipment is unsuitable for this system.

System 2 is still very experimental and the commercial benefits have yet
to be proved. With more intensive plantings the limitations are
a. suitable varieties
b. Less production through overcrowding and shade
c. What happens when the water licence is modified?
d. harvesting equipment is experimental
e. More expertise is required than system 1

Having visited the Hunter Valley, Southern South Australia including the
Riverlands, knowing what happens elswhere I still strongly recommend
system 1 to Growers and if land availability is not a problem even if
water is available wider spacings are better than narrower spacings
because the olive can harvest more nutrients and water from the ground.

Stan Kailis
Western Australia
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