BERRY HARVESTERS

Littau self-propelled harvestor

Today, almost all the red raspberries grown in Washington state are harvested by machine. There are 3 main brands: Korvan, Littau, and BEI. Although each company has it's own unique features, there are basically two styles of harvesters: the rotary head and the slapper. No matter which style you choose, the main goal of the machine is to pick the berries by shaking the bush. The rotary head machine uses either a side-to-side or up-and-down vibration to shake the bushes. The slapper machines use a back-and-forth, slapping motion.

Now, if all the berries on the bush ripened at the same time, this would be very simple. You could take the machine in, hit the bushes hard, and be done with it. However, this is not the case. At any one moment, each bush has berries in all different stages of development. The trick is picking off only the ripe ones, and leaving the rest. Because raspberries loosen from their inner core as they ripen, the ripe fruit is more likely to shake off than the green fruit, so it is possible for a machine to go through and pick only the ripe fruit. However, many different factors can affect this and the machine must constantly be monitored and adjusted to keep picking at its most efficient level.

The Korvan is built right here in Lynden, Washington. Its manufacturing facility is state of the art, producing machines that are
comfortable and easy to operate. They also build grape, coffee bean, and blueberry harvesters.
The Littau is built in Stayton, Oregon. They are the oldest berry harvester manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest, producing
machines with a time proven design.
The B.E.I. is made in Michigan and is primarily used in the blueberry crops of the eastern United States, though it also does a
good job picking raspberries as well.

More Photos

• Tractor mounted Littau 20k
• Over the row Littau with rotary heads 20k
• Littau self propelled with rotary heads 14k