1-20 IAN Fancy Ladder

 How in the world do you solve a labor problem such as picking fruit out of fruit trees by building a better ladder? Is that a question like the world needs a better mousetrap? I don’t think so. I had a conversation the other day with Dr. Essie Fallahi, Parma Research and Extension Center research professor of pomology. He discussed quite an innovation for the world of tree fruit. “Mechanization is very important because the labor issue is becoming politically and economically complex. We have been working in the last 5 years with a number of engineers in order to develop tools that can minimize the need for labor. One of them is a ladder that we are using for harvesting fruits in high density systems. What does the latter group? We have calculated that up to 38% of harvest time is spent on moving the ladders from one location to another location by harvesters. We are working on a design of a mechanical system where the picker can push a button, move the ladders, and pick a huge area in much less time.