Articles
EFFECTS OF MECHANIZED HARVESTING ON REVENUES FROM PROCESSED ASPARAGUS
The major disadvantage of hand harvesting is that it requires a large amount of manual labor.
Increasing labor costs, lack of a dependable labor supply, and risk/liability issues have prompted the asparagus industry to explore alternative harvesting technologies.
Two mechanical harvesting methods were investigated.
One was nonselective and one selective.
The nonselective harvester snaps off the spear instead of cutting it.
The selective harvester harvested spears that broke a light beam making the cutting mechanism cut the spear below ground.
Both methods yield a more heterogeneous product than the traditional hand-harvested asparagus.
The heterogeneous product causes problems with delivery to the processors and in the most efficient use of asparagus in making different products.
A linear programming model was designed to estimate the maximum revenue possible from each harvesting technology with canned whole spears as well as cuts and tips.
Hand harvesting had the greatest potential revenue with current processing requirements of spear length, diameter, and damage.
The selective harvester had more potential revenue than the nonselective harvester.
Changes will have to be implemented in processing plants for both mechanized technologies to become effective.