Ripe cherries wait to be picked in a orchard outside of Prosser, Wash. A new contraption nicknamed the cherry thumper may drastically change how those Northwest fruit get to market.
PROSSER, Wash. — The legend of John Henry pits a “steal driving man” against a steam drill. John Henry wins the contest but in the long run, machines have prevailed in the American economy. Now, researchers at Washington State University are developing a modern day contraption that could put cherry pickers out of work. The “cherry thumper” is the size of a sedan. It thumps tree limbs to drop the fruit onto a conveyor belt. Correspondent Anna King went to check it out at WSU’s cherry test farm in Prosser.
During the cherry harvest nowadays, it’s not unusual to hear the pickers sing. Maria Arebalo belted this one out last season.
Sound: Maria Arebalo
But one day, the sound of cherry picking could be this.
Sound: Cherry thumper
This machine is nicknamed the cherry thumper. It looks like an oversized video game. With a seat, two joysticks and a robot arm. I get Matt Whiting a scientist with WSU, to fire up his invention.
Matt Whiting: “It’s comprised of a thumper, knocks the branches back, fruit fall onto a catching conveyor, they are brought up to the top of the machine, another conveyor brings them to the rear, leaf litter is removed in the field and there is a standard cherry bin collecting the fruit at the back of the machine.”
Qin Zhang, a member of the mechanical cherry harvest team, drives the cherry thumper at a test orchard outside of Prosser, Wash.
Sound: Machine thumping sound, conveyor squeaking sound [under]
Early summer is Whiting’s go time. He has just about two to three weeks during the peak of cherry season to do all his field research for the year. If Whiting can get this thing working properly, farmers could replace hundreds of cherry pickers with one thumper. Whiting says labor is one of the most expensive costs for cherry farmers.
Matt Whiting: “The holy grail would be to have a fully mechanized harvest. We’ve studied that the last few years and we found that the picking costs per pound have gone from by hand from 20 to 24 to maybe 25 cents a pound to 2 to 3 cents per pound using this prototype harvester.”
Whiting says that price includes the purchase of the machine. The U.S. Department of Agriculture thinks it’s such a good idea that it gave Whiting 4-million-dollars to develop the project. Now he has a team of 11 working on everything from nuts and bolts to consumer packaging.
It’s not the only contraption Whiting and his team are developing. They’re also working on a cherry shaker that looks like a weed-eater.
Qin Zhang and Matt Whiting of Washington State University show off their cherry shaker that’s in development and the fruit it can quickly collect.
Sound: Cherry shaker
It could be used in older farms where the trees aren’t suited for the thumper.
These two machines have big implications for the rural economy in the northwest and the cherries you buy in the store.
Last year during the peak of cherry harvest there were more than 40-thousand cherry pickers working in Washington alone. Mechanization means there would be far fewer of them. It also means farmers and consumers would have to get used to cherries without stems. The machines knock the cherries down and the stems stay on the tree. Stem-less cherries are already hitting a test market this summer in Missouri.
Sound: Thumper
If all goes well on the test farm – you might be see the stem-less orbs in your stores in about four more summers.
I’m Anna King outside of Prosser, Washington.
Copyright 2010 Northwest Public Radio
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I would like to see a up close picture of the hand held thumper mentioned in the article. I have some thought of my own on how mechanical cherry harvesting could happen with both the stem on product as well as stem off limb shaking devices. I am involved with a company that has developed new cherry processing equipment having owned a cherry freezing plant in Milton-Freewater, Oregon in past years I still have an interest in improving on our cherry industry. Please forward a site I might look at and or a up close photo or two of this hand held device. Mike