Friday Feature: Harvest CROO Robotic Strawberry Picker

by | Jul 1, 2022 | Ag in the News, Farm Equipment, Feature Video, General Agriculture, Horticulture, Innovation, Strawberry

This week’s featured videos were produced by Channel 10 Tampa Bay News and Harvest CROO Robotics to demonstrate new technology that will soon be available for strawberry growers to replace hand labor.  The Harvest CROO looks like a motorhome with tractor tires rolling slowly through a strawberry field.  Channel 10 News reported that Gary Wishnatzki, Wish Farms, Plant City,FL said, “It will transform the industry. It is approaching human clearance rates. And we believe with a few small modifications, we’re ready to become commercial.”  The Harvest CROO is 32-feet long and 18-feet wide that can harvest about 16 plants at a time. The machine has cameras that can tell ripe strawberries from unripe berries on each plant.  It is estimated a single machine can harvest eight acres per day running non-stop in daylight or at night.  While this new technology may still be years away from widespread adoption, I am always amazed at the level of new innovation in agriculture, particularly related to harvest equipment.

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Harvest CROO Robotics overview video shows how this machine works in more detail.

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If you enjoyed this video, you might want to check out others from the featured video archives:  Friday Feature Archive

If you come across an interesting, inspiring, humorous or something new and innovative related to agriculture, please send in a link, so we can share it with our readers.  Use the share button from the YouTube or Facebook video you like and send the link via email to:  Doug Mayo

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