Apple Harvest and Transport," and was presented by 

 S. A. Sargent, G. K. Brown, C. L. Burton, N. L. Schutte 

 Pason, E. J. Timm, and D. E. Marshall to the American 

 Society of Agricultural Engineers December 15-18, 

 1987. It was a cooperative study by the U.S. Dept. of 

 Agriculture, Agricultural Research Semce, and the 

 Agi'icultural Engineering Department, at East Lan- 

 sing, Michigan. 



This study examined damage to Mcintosh apples 

 in 6 commercial hand-harvested orchards in Michigan. 

 Fruit were sampled from bins when they had 2 or 3 

 layers of fruit in the bottom, and again when they were 

 full. Fruit in these bins were again sampled at the 

 packing houses as they were floated by water from the 

 bins, to assess damage that had occurred during bin 

 transfer operations. 



All fruit were visually evaluated for bruises, which 

 were rated for size (diameter) as "A" = 1/4 to 1/2 inch, 

 "B" = 1/2 to 3/4 inch, "C" = 3/4 to 7/8 inch, "D" = 7/ 

 8 to 1 1/4 inch, and "E" = greater than 1 1/4 inch. Cut 

 or punctured fruit were also recorded. 



Overall, only 18% of the fruit in the bins in the 

 orchard were uninjured (Table 1). Eighty one percent 

 of them were bruised, 1% were cut, and 3% were 

 punctured. As expected, however, injury was more 

 prevalent in the bottom than on the top of the bins. 

 Most (87%) of the bruises were less than 1/2 inch in 

 diameter, and bruise size was about the same for fruit 

 in the bottom and at the top of the bin, indicating that 

 drop distance was about the same in both locations, 

 since bruise size increases with drop height. 



In all orchards, bins were transported by tractor- 

 mounted fork lifts. In some cases, bins were moved to 

 other parts of the orchard for filling, and 1 orchard used 

 a double fork-lift to transport bins from the orchard to 

 the packing house. Three operators used self-loading 

 bin trailers with low-pressure balloon tires for trans- 

 port to roadside. Various trucks and trailers were used 

 to transport bins from roadside to packinghouse. Most 

 roads were paved, and distances ranged from 1/4 to 7 

 miles. 



Following harvest and transpoil, only 6% of the 



FruU Notes, Spring, 1989 



