Mechanisation of apple and pear orchards

March 2015 | Presented by Mauricio Frias, Chile | Future Orchards® five-part presentation series

This five-part presentation series explores how orchard mechanisation can be integrated into apple and pear production rather than treated as a stand-alone machinery decision. The material reflects Chilean and international experience with orchard systems designed for efficient labour and repeatable production tasks.

Across the series, mechanisation is considered alongside row spacing, canopy dimensions, tree training, access, pruning, thinning and harvest. The central theme is that machinery performs best when the orchard has first been designed to make work simple, uniform and accessible.

For Australian growers, the value of the series is its systems approach: labour savings come from combining orchard architecture, work planning and appropriate equipment. The five presentations should be viewed together because the examples build from orchard structure and task design through to practical mechanisation opportunities.