Doug Bragg Enterprises Ltd. Mechanical Blueberry Harvester consists of a
reel-type picking head. The head is side mounted to a tractor in such a manner
as to allow the picking head to follow contours of the ground. The reel rotates
within the head in the same direction as the tractor wheels. This rotation
is at a speed in ratio to the forward motion of the tractor. As the comb type-picking
bars rake the blueberries from the plants they are carried around the reel
and deposited in a conveyor. This conveyor delivers them to another longer
conveyor, which carries them to the rear three-point-hitch mounted loading
platform. As the berries fall from the conveyor a blower cleans them.
All units are equipped with an electric computerized controller. This controller
sends it's signals to an electric-over-hydraulic manifold and corrects the
reel rotation speed according to the tractor speed. This harvester can be
mounted on most models of tractors from 35hp and up.
The operation of this harvester requires two people only, one to operate the
tractor and the other to handle the boxes of berries on the rear-loading platform.
These harvesters are available in single, double and triple head configurations.
These machines have been proven to reduce the harvesting costs as much as
50% and are more efficient than hand raking for product recovery.
