Evaluation and Impacts of Grape Harvester Parameters on Harvest Losses

Abstract

The subject of this study was to evaluate the visible crop losses during the mechanized harvesting of grapes, assess the impacts of changes in the machine parameters and thus to look for the possibility of reducing losses when utilizing this method of harvesting. A comparison with the amount of losses arising from the manual harvesting was also monitored. The research results indicated the average amount of total losses of 1.10–5.62% of harvested crop when utilizing mechanized harvesting. The monitoring revealed the losses occurring in the area of columns in the supporting structure. These ranged from 0.2% to 0.53% of harvested crop. Losses during manual harvesting were found at an average of 1.09% or 1.78%. This research explored how losses due to mechanized grape harvesting can be reduced.

Keywords

• viticulture
• mechanized grape harvesting
• harvesting losses
• manual harvesting