Most orchards are now being developed on dwarf tree rootstock with narrow row width and close tree spacings. This is to obtain maximum crop yield per hectare with minimum input costs.
Height is maintained at about 4 m, and the 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 New Zealand and Australia for over 35 years.
They could see the need for a purpose built machine suited to work in these intensive orchards.
Identifying platform viability
With previous experience in the design and manufacture of multi-person platforms for Ebro Espalier trellis orchards (popular in the mid 1980s) they had already proved a platform for more than two workers was not viable. This is because the work load to each person is never consistent due to variations in tree size and output.
With any more than two people on a platform there will be some working hard to keep up while others are idle.
Workers also tend to linger to the slowest person on the platform. The production of the platform is therefore dictated by this person, and tree variation.
Any downtime, e.g. headland turns and bin changing is multiplied by the number of people manning the platform.
Two–person platform ideal
A two–person platform 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 generate a competitive environment resulting in the slower person speeding up to the pace of the faster worker.
Taking all 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 already 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, while 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.
Contact HYDRALADA Company
freephone 1800 124 352 web www.hydralada.com
For more information see Tree Fruit January 2014
