| Grape harvest is still fully manual in the majority of farms in Brazil (above 99%), yet the structure of the fields and the vine trellis are already prepared for it in a 24% of the cases. Besides, only the large-size farms are prepared for performing a detailed analysis of working capacity, product quality and losses; data of great value when trying to quantitatively address the incorporation of machinery. The fact that grape harvest in South America (and South Africa) be complementary in season compared to Europe, or North America, makes this potential market of Brazil an interesting option for European manufacturers. In this work, we have supervised a whole grape harvest season, in a 552ha farm, where both, mechanical (trailed) and manual harvest, are... |
