Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/696150
10 JULY 2016 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com acres — about 75 percent of his canned peach farm on the banks of the Stanislaus River in Escalon. Sure enough, he said, he got more of his orchard thinned and larger fruit for a fraction of the cost, he said. Now, he wants other growers to come and steal the idea he believes will work on fresh market peaches as well as canners. He has no ambition to patent or trademark it. "What I would really like is for people to look at this thing," he said. "Try it. It's a no-brainer." Trimming labor costs Industry education was the idea in the fi rst place, said Rich Hudgins, president and CEO of the California Canning Peach Association. "That was our desire from Day One," he said. In 2008, the Sacramento-based association teamed up with California's peach canning companies to set aside industry funds for mechanization research to cope with a dwindling labor pool and rising labor costs. The groups raised $1.1 million in the three-year funding period. Together, they purchased two Darwin string thinners — at roughly $10,000 each — and ran trials with a local farm adviser and growers in and around Yuba City and Modesto. Orchardists lost interest after struggling to maneuver the spinners in and out of the vase-shaped tree canopies, so the machines were not used as much as they had hoped. Hudgins agreed to let Bavaro take a stab at modifying one of the Darwins to work better in the existing orchards. "We're all for this," Hudgins said. "We're pleased we've got somebody out there with a little different twist on the Darwin." Hudgins expects more growers will adopt his method, or something similar, hoping for some labor-expense relief after the California State Legislature passed a law that will gradually increase the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022. "It makes it all the more the imperative that we fi nd a way to reduce our reliance on hand labor," Hudgins said. The state's industry has funded other experiments with vacuum harvesters, drum shakers, handheld string thinners and experimental plantings. Currently, the state harvests about 10 percent of its cling peaches mechanically. The organization represents about 400 growers, roughly 80 percent of the state's cling peach industry. The group negotiates prices with the canners on behalf of the growers. Currently, the negotiated price is $490 Adrian Rey operates the modifi ed thinner on a pivoting arm, which makes it easier to swing the strings and follow the contours of the canopy. PLAY Watch these machines at work at goodfruit.com/media