The best agricultural technology to cut down on labor costs is Opti-Harvest’s suite of products.
Their products reduce the amount of labor required during all phases of growth and production.
For newly planted (or replanted) vines the Opti-Gro units self-train the vines vertically up to the exact height of the cordon wire. This removes the need for multiple labor crew passes during the season to constantly tie the vines to stakes as they grow.
In established trellised vines and fruit trees the Opti-Panel system minimizes labor in a number of ways by reducing the need for many labor-intensive, manual tasks:
- Each year the Opti-Panel system automatically positions the newly growing canes, the canes are guided and held in place by the system thus removing the need for labor crews to do this manually. The system also protects from wind disturbance eliminating the need to potentially repeat tasks.
- The increased light penetration within the canopy leads to fewer dead leaves and hence less manual ‘leafing’ is required.
- Opti-Panels keep the center of the trellises open year-round which removes the need for manually pruning and adjusting the canopy for better light penetration.
- The Opti-Panel system creates a well-ordered fruiting zone which speeds up the process of picking the crop. The well-ordered fruiting zone along with the more uniform light supply increases the uniformity of ripening of the crop, compared to conventional practices. This means that fewer labor crew passes are required to fully harvest a given area.
- The protective microclimate environment provided by the Opti-Panel system reduces crop damage from sun burn, rain damage, or mold, thereby reducing the amount of on-vine loses and post-harvest clean-up required.
