Berkshire-based arable and fruit farmer Richard Copas has published his Nuffield Farming report 'The Mechanisation of Cherry Production and Harvest', sponsored by the Malcolm Isaac Scholarship.

The full report is now available on the Nuffield Farming report library. Richard's report video can be found on the Nuffield Farming YouTube channel and a recording of him presenting at the Nuffield Farming Conference can be found here.

During his Scholarship, Richard travelled to the United Kingdom, USA, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Chile.

In his report, Richard said: "The UK sweet cherry sector is reliant on seasonal foreign labour and, with rising minimum wage levels, the pressure to find alternative harvesting techniques is ever-increasing to secure home-grown production against importation from lower labour cost areas of the world."

Richard noted that harvesting cherries is possibly one of the most difficult crops to mechanise due to the small fruit size, clustered fruit, dense foliage and complex tree canopies. However, he identified two potential future harvest solutions: individual fruit removal with robotic technology and mass harvest techniques.

"In terms of robotics, systems are not currently being developed specifically for the cherry industry. Significant investment is being made in other fruit sectors, but the commercialisation of these systems remains elusive. The technology continues to develop at a rapid rate and could potentially be transferable to the cherry industry."

But commercial robotic harvesting of cherries is unlikely to be possible in the short term: "The main hurdle to overcome is that the current prevalent cherry growing systems with complex canopy structures are not suitable for robotic harvesting as the robots cannot easily access the fruit. Therefore, the industry should move towards single plain growing systems and work with robotic companies as the technology continues to develop."

For the mass harvesting of cherries, the technology is currently available to detach sweet fresh cherries with mechanical vibration: "The reason these systems have not been adopted is the high percentage of fruit damage as the fruit falls through the tree. By using innovative single plain growing systems on a Y trellis, it should be possible to reduce fall distances and harvest losses.

"The mass harvesting of cherries will result in a stem-free product with a comparable shelf life. Initial indications suggest that a stem-free cherry will be acceptable in European and North American markets however less suitable to Asian markets," he concludes.

Study objectives

• Study the current and future availability of new technologies and techniques in terms of plant physiology, machine capabilities and robotics
• Determine the options available for the mechanisation of cherry production and harvest and the effect of this on the structure of cherry orchards of the future.

Key messages

1. Sweet fresh cherries are possibly one of the hardest crops to mechanise due to the small fruit size, clustered fruit, dense foliage and complex tree canopies.
2. Advancements in robotics offer medium to long term potential, however trees will need to be grown on single plain growing systems.
3. Mass harvesting techniques with shakers are possible now on a Y trellis growing system. This will result in a stem-free product that might not be acceptable in all international markets.