First mechanised harvest work in our olive grove

At this time of year, it is normal to talk about planting or sowing... but whenever you plant, you harvest, which is what happens with olive groves. The last harvest we do throughout the year is the olive harvest (the work we show you is from December) and for us, on this occasion, it is a milestone as it is the first time we have done mechanised harvesting in our olive grove... quite an advance!

Until now, we have always harvested manually, as the olives on one tree were not yet producing. Last year, these one tree olive trees were harvested, but we did it manually so as not to damage the trunks, as they were a bit thin. This year, we decided to mechanise harvesting work, and it has been a complete success.

It has been a great success, as it significantly reduces the time required and because mechanised harvesting is cheaper than doing it manually. In terms of time, we completed the harvest in two days, whereas previously it took us almost four days. As for costs, manual harvesting costs us 0.2€/kg, whereas mechanisation has reduced this to 0.08€/kg. This cost can even be improved when we have higher production, as the olive trees are young and production is set to increase in the coming years.

Finally, we would like to thank Juan Pedro for his excellent work operating the harvesting machine (umbrella).

Versión en español.

Harvesting almond trees

Earlier this month we met our friends from the company Sisante Agrícola to see them harvesting almond trees. So, we went to in San Clemente (Cuenca), where they were working with one of their two Fendt they have working on the almond harvest with the Solano-Horizonte umbrella. 

Sisante Agrícola is a company located in Sisante (Cuenca), which is mainly engaged in the sale of fertilizers and phytosanitary products. In recent years, they have also provided agricultural work to other farmers in direct seeding with the Fendt 716 and Fendt 313, crop protection work with the Unimog and harvesting work on almonds, pistachio and olive groves with the two Solano-Horizonte umbrellas. 

We spent a morning in the field with our friend Shawn (from California, USA) along with the tractor driver of the Pyti in San Clemente. We all had a great time watching how the Fendt 716 and the Solano-Horizonte umbrella worked in a Guara almond plantation with a very narrow planting frame (6x5,5 meters). The truth is that we were very surprised by the great mobility of the tractor among so many almond trees, and the smoothness it had even when working at a constant engine speed (1,500 rpm). Without any doubt, Pyti's great experience makes the tractor work very well. According to Pyti, they can harvest around 100 almond trees per hour, so they are not standing still.

Versión en español.