LOOKING AT POTATO HARVESTERS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 8

LOOKING AT POTATO HARVESTERS

Growers from Auckland to Invercargill who swarmed over six bulk potato harvesters which were demonstrated at a field day held at Lincoln College this week were making their own assessments of the machines.

A commentator at the field day, which was organised by the industry and in particular the central ward committee of growers, and sponsored by the New Zealand Potato Board, advised growers to make their own inquiries about price because of the ancillary equipment that might be required along with the harvester. A spokesman for a firm handling an Australian harvester said that the price of a double-row harvester was $BOOO and for a single-row machine $4600, but ancillary equipment, which was seen in operation with the harvester this week, included a metal tractor-drawn trailer bin and a potato elevator or piler for unloading into a pit and the spokesman said that a grower might also need a supply of wooden bins. The firm which makes this harvester also makes potato machinery from planters to equipment for packaging potatoes and exports machinery to many countries, including South America, and its products may shortly be introduced to Cyprus, which a representative will visit next month. The going after some six inches of rain had fallen in the district in the last week was not easy for the machines and one farmer watching the demonstration regretted that the crop being handled was not heavier yielding so that the ability of the machines might be assessed under conditions which were likely to be encountered in at least a part of the crop on many potato-growing properties. The machines varied in size and in the manner in which the potatoes were handled after being gathered up. It

looked as though on average four to six men would be involved in driving tractors and in tending the machines and moving the produce. In two cases the crops were pre-dug. Most of the machines harvested their potatoes into bins which were moved on the hydraulic lifts of tractors and carried to the pit for unloading, but the Australian machine unloaded into a metal trailer bin drawn along beside the harvester, and one of the English machines unloaded into a lorry-drawn bin. Although farmers were making their own assessments of the machines, some endeavour was made by the field day organisers to measure the performances of the harvesters and samples were taken from one row dug by each machine in the course of a performance assessment trial on Wednesday, the day before the field day. The measurement team included Mr J. S. Dunn, senior research officer of the New Zealand Agricultural Engineering Institute. Figures issued at the field day were described as provisional. Where figures for the number of men engaged in the operation are given they include only those working at the time the row was harvested and do not necessarily include personnel engaged in removing bulk bins from harvesters. Figures for potatoes left behind in the ground by the machines were calculated on the basis of two quarter chain sections of the row in question, and the amount of soil collected by the harvester was given in relation to a clean ton of potatoes harvested. Details are:

Mr G. de Joux, a port grader of Timaru, inspected a sample of potatoes harvested by each machine and took out 10 potatoes from each for close examination. He noted that the potatoes had been harvested when the soil was fairly wet and under such conditions it was hard to damage potatoes. However in one sample he noticed that two potatoes or 20 per cent were bruised. In two cases there was 10 per cent damage and in four samples there was no damage, but one of these samples showed slight skinning. One of the samples submitted to him was picked by hand and in this case he said that there was no bruising but two of the potatoes were cut. But Mr de Joux said that it was very hard to find bruising in potatoes very soon after they have been dug. It is intended to store the samples for two months when they will again be examined ,to ascertain whether any damage or bruising has developed during the normal storage period.

Make Type Staff Johnson (England) Lifter 4 Linton (N.Z.) Dig, lift 5 Taylor (N.Z.) 4 Port (Aust.) .. ,, 4 Whitsed (England) 3 Taege (N.Z.) Lifter 3

Min, per Acre Leavings Seed Table lb lb Dirt/ Ton lb 206.25 1075 132 194 330 538 264 65 379.5 264 — 1600 173.5 1190 660 260 181.5 792 660 39 288.5 660 — 555