Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/283151
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER APRIL 1, 2014 31 in efficiency, but it exceeded his expecta- tions. "I don't think anything was a push," he said. "Everything seemed to be double what we did off the ladder." Not all workers welcomed the idea of the platform, however. In the spring, they introduced the machines with a crew of 25 people, and ended up with 14 who worked on them. "Two people right off the get-go were shaking their heads," he said. "They've been around a long time and said, 'It's not going to work.'" Van Pelt said he had other jobs for those who didn't want to be on plat- forms. Some of the best workers on the platforms had never picked an apple before. They had men and women aged anywhere from 17 to over 60. "I think they're pretty open to it once they see what it's like," he said, noting that removing the ladder greatly simpli- fies the picking process. The gain in productivity was such that they were able to field sort some fruit they wouldn't have been able to otherwise. They operated two 11-hour shifts per day (24 hours a day with two one-hour breaks for refueling, etc.) for two months and were ahead of schedule picking Galas for the first time ever. Van Pelt said he hadn't thought about doing night work before getting the machine, but now believes it's an option that growers need to have. "That's where we used a lot of H-2A people," he said. "They're here to work, and they wanted to work at night time." The platforms increased the efficiency of other harvest operations besides picking. A crew boss was able to super- vise pickers on three platforms. Since he didn't have to walk back and forth between individual pickers, he was able to spend more time with the crews. Slow workers were not a problem, he said. "You'll find the slacker, but every one of the crew will police themselves, and they'll get on that guy when they have to start making up for his inefficiencies." Many uses Van Pelt used the platforms for many different orchard tasks, from installing trellis wire to tree training, pruning, and thinning, as well as harvesting. Blossom thinning was done at night, as the blos- soms show up well under the LED lights. He also did night-time pruning. "We've done everything with it," he said, estimating that he put 2,500 hours on the three machines last season. "If you're saving 10 percent on something, minimum, it doesn't take long to pay something like that off." • "They're all fighting to make as much money as they can. The cousin who can't keep up— he's off." —Don Armock PHOTOS BY GERALDINE WARNER