What Are the Methods of Harvesting? And How Can Machinery Help?

From our ancestors hand picking their crops to state of the art farming machinery, harvesting methods have come a long way. The importance of harvesting is widely recognized, as technological developments in the agricultural scene continue to expand, leading to a wide variety of equipment options for farmers. With so many choices available nowadays, finding the best equipment for your farm’s needs can be challenging. Whether you’re searching for “used combines for sale” or “types of harvester machines for orchards,” understanding the methods of harvesting and how machinery streamlines this process can be helpful for finding the right equipment for your farm. 

Harvesting by hand or with hand tools is still a widely used method for certain crops, such as saffron or vanilla beans. Saffron is quite delicate to handle, as it involves pulling three tiny saffron strands from each flower, and vanilla beans are hand-picked due to the very small window of ripeness. These are a few advantages of hand harvesting, also known as “manual harvesting.” Even so, machinery is being developed for saffron harvests, and no doubt mechanical solutions for gathering ripe vanilla beans will soon follow.

For larger operations, hand harvesting involves hundreds of workers combing through fields, picking all the crops by hand. If you’re thinking, “That would take forever,” you’re not wrong. One vineyard found that harvesting 2.5 tons of grapes took about five hours of total labor with mechanical harvesters, versus a whopping 43 hours for hand-picking the same amount of grapes.

So, farming machinery can save significant time, but what else can it do? Let’s take a look at some modern harvesting machines and what they have to offer. 

Mechanical processes exist for nearly all methods of harvesting. These machines have been created and developed over the past few centuries by observing the pain points of hand harvesting and seeking to solve those issues. What are some mechanical harvesting benefits? 

We see thousands of pieces of farming equipment pass through our MachineryPete marketplace, including a wide variety of harvesting machines. Let’s review a few of the more popular types.

Combines
The combine is a modern creation that combines four stages of harvesting into one machine. These stages are:
Reaping - First, the header of the combine cuts the plant from the ground and moves the entire plant into the combine machine. Different headers are available depending on the crop being harvested.
Threshing - The threshing system separates the grain from the plant by either using an agitation system or a rotating mechanism.
Winnowing - After threshing, the grain goes through winnowing, which removes any remaining chaff by blowing streams of air through the grain to lift away the lighter chaff.
Gathering - Separated grains are directed into a collection tank, usually through the use of a sieve and gravity.

Platforms
Harvesting platforms are frequently used in orchards, as the mechanical platform lifts workers to the necessary height for gathering a tree’s fruits. Many harvesting platforms come with conveyor belts or suction tubes to take the fruit from the worker to a large bin, where the fruits are evenly distributed across the bin. When the bin is full, it can easily be replaced with an empty bin, as many platforms come with storage for empty bins and bin replacement mechanisms. 

Corn Pickers
This machine strips corn stalks, ensuring that only the cobs are harvested. The header has gathering chains that pull the stalks into the machine. From there, the stalks are guided into a rotating mechanism, which grabs the stalk, spins it down, and pops the ear of corn off of the stalk. The corn ears are then deposited into a husking bed, which is full of steel and rubber rollers that pull the husks from the cobs. Last, the corn ears travel up an elevator into a collection wagon.

Pull-Type and Self-Propelled Forage Harvesters
Forage harvesting machines collect forage plants to make silage, which is a type of fodder that can be fed to livestock. These harvesters come as pull-types (meaning they have to be attached to something else and pulled through a field) or self-propelled. Forage machinery usually has flywheels with a number of fixed knives that chop the plants up, although the cutting mechanisms will vary depending on the crop header attachment used. The chopped material is then blown out a chute into another vehicle traveling alongside the forage harvester. 

Successful farms may use one or all of these machines, as each has its place in the world of agriculture. If you’re looking to expand your fleet of harvesting machinery, Machinery Pete’s got you covered. 

We understand the pain of finding quality farming equipment without breaking the bank, which is why Machinery Pete was founded in 1989. From then to now, our team has developed a deep understanding of the farming equipment marketplace through extensive research and price tracking. Dealers, buyers, and sellers can all benefit from the use of our platform, as we seek to make the buying and selling process as easy as possible.

Find the used farm equipment you need through our extensive search engine capabilities, and in no time you’ll be negotiating with sellers and on the road to a better farming experience.