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September is the time of intensive harvesting in orchards and on plantations. We recently visited our customer while harvesting plums with the MAJA AUTOMATIC LK machine. Fruit grower – Wojtek produces mainly plums, sour cherries and black currants on his farm. He has picked up fruit in his orchard by hand so far.  He worked alone with his wife and daughters and hired additional staff. Usually, he needed a minimum of 30 people in the season.

Mechanical harvesting or by hands

This year everything has changed. Our customer decided to buy a shaking and cleaning unit. He chose the MAJA AUTOMATIC model LK. Why? He explained it to us in the interview we had during our visit. The interview was led by Krystian Wejman, whom you know from our videoblog.

The problem with finding people to work was the main reason for buying the machine. Low purchase prices caused that manual harvesting was not profitable at all.

In this season, first was sour cherries harvest.  Only 4 people were required to collect fruit in crates. 3 people were enough if the cherry was harvested into big 500 kg boxes for the industry.

We were in the plum orchard with our camera during the harvest. The grower, working with his wife, harvested 1500 kg of fruit in 1.5 hours. Last year, 4 people (the grower with his wife and daughters) harvested that amount of plums all day.

Fruit for industry or fresh market

During this season, our customer harvested fruit both for processing and for the industry. Depending on the destination, cherries were harvested in the small 20 kg boxes and in big 500kg boxes. Plums were collected for the fresh market.

The machine has a lot of adjustments. You can regulate the parameters and make the harvest as effective as possible,( e.g. picking cherries in 500 kg boxes). You can also sort the fruits. After analyzing the farm profile, MAJA was equipped with an additional 1-level long grate made of stainless steel. It is used for harvesting fruits in small boxes and sorts the fruits. The machine operator can choose the operating parameters in such a way as the person on the working platform can pick the fruit in boxes on time – clean and without any leaves and dirtiness. If you harvest the fruit in big 500 kg boxes, they are unloaded using a hydraulically lowered forks mounted on the machine.

The orchard ready for mechanical harvest

The plum orchard you can watch on video is a 20-year-old traditional orchard. The distance between trees in one row is about 2 m.  It was necessary to undercut the lower branches to work with the MAJA AUTOMATIC LK model there. A proper cut allows you to grab the trunk with rubber pincers. The screens can unfold without the risk of damage.

There are different screens width in the offer so you can certainly choose the most optimal solution for your orchard.

A machine customized to your needs

The technical solutions and available equipment in the MAJA machine allow to adapt harvester to effective harvesting in almost all conditions in the orchard. They are different fruit varieties for mechanical harvest and their target market can be various. Our customer’s farm is a perfect example of this. Choosing a machine with a screen folded and unfolded automatically allows to minimize the number of people working on the farm. Now, members of the closest family work during harvest. In addition, the comfort of work has improved and there is more free time. There is also no longer the uncertainty whether there will be enough hands to work.

Come on our YT channel and watch our videoblog with the whole interview with the farmer during the harvest.

There are also episodes where we present you with our offer for MAJA machines.