abstract
- Trunk and bough shakers are common equipment for olive harvesting, and therefore information about their performance is becoming available. For less common equipment like canopy shakers, there is a lack of information relative to their field work capacity. The Oli-picker harvester is commercially available, and operates brushing the tree canopy with a spiked cylindrical coomb mounted on a hydraulic articulated arm, making possible operation, inside or around the olive tree crown. This paper presents results from three years of observation of the Oli-picker harvester in Trás-os-Montes (northeast of Portugal), including the methodologies of work followed in the field, the work rates found and expected costs.