KEARNEYSVILLE, WV -
Eating greens may be a special
treat, but harvesting them is
backbreaking work. So a trio ot
U.S. Department ot Agriculture
and State engmeers are developing
a mechamcal harvester to revive a
dying industry.
“Fresh market greens are on the
decline because they have to be
hand-harvested, and workers are
ditticult to lind,” says Donald L.
Peterson who is with USDA’s
Agricultural Research Service at
Kearneysville, WV
While stationed at East Lansing,
Ml, Peterson and two colleagues
desgmed, built and tield-tested the
first prototype harvester which
gathers and cuts the leaves and
conveys them through an in
spection area where discolored
leaves and weeds are removed by
hand, then on to a mechanism
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Harvester for greens may save time, labor
which bunches and ties the leaves
automatically.
The harvester was rear-mounted
to a 60-horsepower tractor that has
hydrostatic drive in order to
maintain a precise ground speed.
Peterson’s collaborators were ARS
engmeer G.K. Brown, located at
Michigan State University, and
A.K. Snvastava, assistant
professor ot agricultural
engineering at Michigan State
University.
The harvester performed well
for turnip and mustard greens
which had been drill-planted, but
did not satisfactorily gather
collards which were grown as
widely spaced individual plants. It
produced bunches that were more
uniform in size than hand
harvested greens and equal in
quality.
The prototype harvester and its
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Eric Hemsohn
Cindy Gordeuk
James Charles
Oarvm Yoder
Paul Herr
Paul Martin
Lynn Gardner
Robert Kayhart
William Tyner
Robert Greider
Tom Engle
Ira Boyer
Dan Rush
Dan Rush
Cyndy Hetzell
Allan Pickett
George Showers
Wayne Piper
Wendel Musser
Larry Bower
Harold Robson, Jr
Michael C Ewing
Wilmer Hendricks
JohnM Beachy
Mervm Zendt
Glenn Barr
Bonnie Barker
Bangor, PA
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215-588-4704
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814-848-7674
crew ot three turned out 18 cartons
(432 bunches) ot mustard greens
per hour and 28 cartons (672
bunches) ot turnip greens per
hour-rates that are only slightly
better, on a worker-hour basis,
than hand-harvesting. However,
this test model was designed for
single rows. A multiple-row har
vester could mcrease worker
productivity, says Peterson. He
points out that the engmeermg
involved in converting his
prototype into a multiple-row
harvester should be relatively
simple. Productivity could also be
improved by 30 to 50 percent if
there is good weed control, and the
greens are of more uniform height,
he added. Hand-harvesting
currently accounts for 10 to 25
percent of the sale price of leafy
green vegetables.
Peterson estimates it will be 2 to
Commercial • Agricultural • Residential
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3 years betore the prototype
harvester is ready tor commercial
use. Brown and Snvastava are
continuing its development and are
trying to adapt it to a large variety
$55 million available
to Poland
WASHINGTON - The United
States will make $55 million
available to Poland in response to
that country’s urgent need for
corn, Secretary of Agriculture
John R. Block said today.
Funds will be provided through
an allocation under Title I of
Public Law 480 (Food for Peace),
and will supplement previous
short-term financing made
available under the Commodity
Credit Corporation’s GSM-102
export payment guarantee
program. Commodities to be
financed under the P.L. 480
allocation will be purchased for
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717-259-9868
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of leafy greens, including root
crops that are sold with their leafy
tops, such as beets, bunching
onions, turnips and possibly
carrots.
August and September delivery,
Block said.
CCC last September allocated
$670 million in credit guarantees to
Poland to enable it to obtain
commercial financing to buy
American agricultural com
modities in fiscal 1981. Poland has
now used about $652 million of that
allocation.
Title I of Public Law 480 allows
receiving nations to buy U.S.
agricultural products for dollars,
but on credit terms more favorable
than normal commercial tran
sactions. The total P.L. 480
financing period for Poland will be
10 years.
MEMO
HAY,
STRAW &
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SALE
EVERY
MONDAY
At 11A.M.
NEW HOLLAND SALES
STAILES, INC.
Phone 717-354-4341
Lloyd H Kreider,
Auctioneer