Hop Harvester

[Jayme]

http://www.bineimplement.com/3060_Harvester.php

Pretty nifty looking! $12K still wayyy too much for home use but seems not too unreasonable for a small commercial operation.

[wortly]

That was showcased at a conference that I just got back from. The overall feeling in the room was that at first glance it appears to be kind of dangerous - sticking your hands into a spinning claw, but apparently it is o.k.

There were also some pretty cool small scale balers and oast setups. The presentations should be online soon, I'll post the link when I hear, or you could keep checking http://www.uvm.edu/extension/cropsoil/hops" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; to see some of the stuff yourself.

[HPhunter]

It looks a lot like a chicken plucker!
How do they remove the leaves from the cones?

[Jayme]

That was showcased at a conference that I just got back from.

What conference was it?? Sounds interesting!

How do they remove the leaves from the cones?

I think it said on the site somewhere that there's a separating machine of some sort also.

[wortly]

Yeah, there are a couple of wide adjustable dribble belts that you can set the pitch depending on the variety. The hops are round and roll down off of the belts and the leaves get separated off the top of the belt.