Many orchards are now being developed on dwarf tree rootstocks with narrow row width and close tree spacing.
This is to obtain maximum crop yield per hectare with minimum input costs.
Height is maintained to around 4 m, and trees are trained to a wire trellis to minimize the pruning requirement, and optimise fruit quality, size and colour.
Hydralada Company are specialist manufacturers of self propelled elevating work platforms and have been supplying the horticulture industry throughout Australasia for over 35 years.
They could see the need for a purpose built machine suited to work in these intensive orchards.
Platform for two (or four)
A platform designed for two (in some jobs, four) showed it could significantly reduce the labour requirement to manage the upper regions of these trees.
With small lower tier branches and single leader structure, a small compact platform machine was required.
It is a fact that two workers on a machine will generate a competitive environment resulting in the slower person speeding up to the pace of the faster worker.
Taking these factors into consideration, Hydralada Company developed the Twin Lift 200 Platform Machine.
Twin Lift 200 Platform Machine
The Hydralada Twin Lift 200 Machine is used all year round: pruning, tree training, thinning, and with the bin module fitted, the machine will carry bins through the platform for harvesting.
Growers using the Twin Lift 200 are reporting significant increases in productivity, resulting in a dramatic reduction in their overall labour costs.
The Twin Lift 200 uses all regular Hydralada running gear which has been tried and proven over many years.
The machine is very reliable and the overall running costs are exceptionally low.
It is a very compact and simple machine. Other types of platforms tend to be big, cumbersome and technical—with excessive gadgets, adjustments and other paraphernalia—detracting from the work at hand.
The new Hydralada Twin Lift 200 means you can now work the tops of the trees with two people, safely and efficiently.
Compact 300 Model
The Compact 300 Model single person platform is a front line piece of equipment in the orchard and has the potential to increase output by three times during pruning, tree training and thinning.
This machine is very compact and extremely manoeuvrable with independent wheel drive enabling the chassis to counter rotate on the spot.
Coupled with the Hydrafork bin shifting attachment, the Compact Hydralada can move full bins of fruit during harvest.
Visit the Hydralada website www.hydralada.com
to see the full range and to view our video page.
E-mail
See this article in Tree Fruit August 2013
