Citrus Mechanical Harvesting Field Day :: April 2006

Remaining Profitable in the Face of Canker and Greening -
Prospects for Mechanical Harvesting!

Date: April 6, 2006
Southwest Florida Research and Education Center
Immokalee, FL

Brochure (PDF; 143kb)

Agenda

8:00 am
Registration, refreshments, and welcome

8:30 am
Economic thresholds for success of mechanical harvesting in citrus
Fritz Roka, UF-SWFREC

8:40 am
Making mass harvesters more productive with abscission
Jackie Burns, UF-CREC

9:00 am
Travel to two field sites:

12:00 pm
Lunch - Catered by Gator Hammock

1:00 pm
Developing new harvesting technology, a manufacturer’s perspective
Gary Stich, OXBO Corp.

1:20 pm
Harvester enhancements: improved sanitation and yield monitoring, (3.1MB; .zip)
Reza Ehsani, UF-CREC

1:40 pm
Future mechanical improvements and robotic fresh fruit harvesting
Tom Burks, UF-Gainesville

2:00 pm
Break

2:20 pm
Effect of mechanical harvesting on tree health and yield
Jim Syvertson, UF-CREC

2:40 pm
The shape of nursery trees in the future to improve mechanical harvesting efficiency
Bob Rouse, UF-SWFREC

3:00 pm
Observations of tree damage after Hurricane Wilma from both hand and mechanically harvested groves
Kelly Morgan, Mongi Zekri, Fritz Roka, and Bob Rouse, UF-SWFREC

3:30 pm
Wrap-up, evaluation, and adjourn