Machine Harvest for Fresh Panel: Work Closely with Packer and Marketer

Working closely with your marketer and packer are two keys to success when machine harvesting blueberries for the fresh market, according to a panel at the 2024 Oregon Blueberry Conference, held Febuary 6 in Salem.

Caylan Gingerich, harvest coordinator for AgriCare, one of two growers on the three-person panel, said she starts communicating with marketers and packers in February. “And then post pollination, we will have another conversation with our marketers and packers. And then two weeks out, one week out, and then daily as we approach harvest. You can’t make too many phone calls leading up to harvest season,” Gingerich said.

Moderator TJ Hafner leads a discussion with Tyson Davies, Anne Krahmer-Steinkamp and Caylan Gingerich at the 2024 Oregon Blueberry Conference.

“It involves a lot of communication,” said Anne Krahmer-Steinkamp, harvest operations manager for Berries Northwest, who also served on the panel. “What is it you’re going to be picking and sending them? Where are they going with the fruit? And it involves really paying attention to what you’re doing.”

Krahmer-Steinkamp said she goes so far as to follow her fruit through the pack house. “You will learn so much just watching your own fruit run through that line and learning what it is they’re looking for at the end of the line,” Krahmer-Steinkamp said.

Tyson Davies, director of Global Supply for Firestone Pacific Foods and the third member of the panel, agreed with Krahmer-Steinkamp and Gingerich, noting that particularly during harvest season communication with growers is critical for packers.

“I think weekly and daily communication on forecasts for the pack shed is really essential, because we can pick a lot of fruit quickly, and so scheduling becomes a really important feature,” Davies said.

Also, Davies said, fruit quality can change quickly during harvest and market conditions can fluctuate depending on what region is coming into the fresh market. And he noted that the company’s packing sheds will adjust settings to accommodate machine-harvested fresh fruit, adding to the importance of good communication. “We really need to set up the fresh packed pack sheds to handle machine. That could be more optical sorting, more lines, those kinds of things,” he said.

“We just have to have more QC (quality control) on the line to get that Grade A, U.S. No. 1 product in the clamshell to satisfy the consumer,” he said. “That is what we’re shooting for as a target.”

Increase in the Practice
Both AgriCare and Berries Northwest have increased machine harvesting for fresh in recent years. Gingerich said the majority of blueberries harvested for fresh at AgriCare in Oregon today are machine harvested, and Krahmer-Steinkamp said Berries Northwest is now harvesting about 40 percent of its fresh crop with machines

“We’ve definitely upped ours from two years prior,” Krahmer-Steinkamp said, noting the farm added an Oxbo machine harvester and ran two Oxbo harvesters and one Littau harvester last year.

The growers said they use the machines to harvest multiple varieties for the fresh market, but that Duke and Draper were the most common varieties harvested for fresh with the machines.

“I feel like we are fairly successful with Duke, Draper and Blue Ribbon,” Gingerich said. “Legacy is hit or miss. This past season, with pollination being poor, our Legacy actually didn’t size very well which led to a successful machine pick for fresh. So, that was a surprise that we were actually able to send a lot of Legacy fresh this year.”

Gingerich added that even with Duke and Draper, fruit can develop differently in certain years and in certain locations. “Not every Draper feels the same. Not every Duke feels the same,” she said. “But for the most part, those are the varieties you can typically find success with.”

Krahmer-Steinkamp agreed, noting the majority of what they machine pick for fresh are Duke and Draper. “We also had a variety called Roberto that we were successfully picking for fresh here in the Valley,” she said.

The growers also said it is important to calibrate machine harvesters on a regular basis, multiple times daily, in fact.

“I would say we are calibrating our equipment six to eight times a day,” Gingerich said.

“We are checking the settings on those machines all throughout the day,” Krahmer-Steinkamp said. “It’s just really a matter of communicating with your crews so that everyone understands what end product you are going for and what you want to leave behind for your next picking. You don’t want to leave too much blue fruit, because then you’re going to end up with a lot of soft fruit.”

Asked if they pruned differently when pruning areas earmarked for machine harvest, both said they didn’t. Both also said they believed advances in genetics could help improve machine harvesting for fresh.

“I think we just need to keep working with our breeders on trying to come up with what we need,” Krahmer-Steinkamp said.

In the meantime, with labor tight and with improvements in harvesting equipment, it is clear that machine harvesting for the fresh market is not something that is going away anytime soon, or even declining for that matter. And Krahmer-Steinkamp noted, with proper procedures, quality and packouts on fruit can be better or similar on machine picked fruit. And when engaging in good communication along the chain, a grower can find significant success machine harvesting for the fresh market.