Article
Mechanized Grape Harvest Efficiency
Ján Jobbágy
1
, Martin Doˇckalík
1
, Koloman Krištof
1,
* and Patrik Burg
2
Citation: Jobbágy, J.; Doˇckalík, M.;
Krištof, K.; Burg, P. Mechanized
Grape Harvest Efficiency. Appl. Sci.
2021, 11, 4621. https://doi.org/
10.3390/app11104621
Academic Editor: João Carlos de
Oliveira Matias
Received: 14 April 2021
Accepted: 15 May 2021
Published: 18 May 2021
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral
with regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional affil-
iations.
Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
1
Department of Machines and Production Biosystems, Faculty of Engineering, Slovak University of
Agriculture in Nitra, Hlinku 2, 94976 Nitra, Slovakia; jan.jobbagy@uniag.sk (J.J.); xdockalik@uniag.sk (M.D.)
2
Department of Horticultural Machinery, Faculty of Horticulture, Mendel University in Brno, Valtická 337,
69144 Lednice, Czech Republic; patrik.burg@mendelu.cz
* Correspondence: koloman.kristof@uniag.sk
Abstract:
Due to the low number of employees and the time limit in the field of grape harvesting, we
focused in the presented article on evaluating the effectiveness of the deployment of an outboard
grape harvester within the conditions of Slovak viticulture. The vineyards are in the Nitra wine-
growing region on the southwestern slopes behind the Pivnica Radošina company, Piešt’any district,
in a total area of 33 ha. The object of the research was a PELLENC 8090 Selective Process trailed grape
harvester aggregated with a SAME Frutteto3 100 tractor. The mechanized harvesting was tested
in the vineyards of Pivnica Radošina s. r. on three selected varieties (Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and
Tramin Red) for two years. Entry conditions, technical parameters of the equipment, and weather
conditions were monitored for all varieties. Data were analyzed with STATISTICA statistical software.
As part of the research, post-harvest losses due to mechanized harvesting were monitored. The
average losses for all examined varieties reached the value of 2.17% in 2018, and the value of 2.25%
in 2017. A significant output was the efficiency of the deployment of the set for mechanized grape
harvesting, where in 2018 a minimum value of 146.3 ha was set (the average cost of grapes was
500 Euro
·
t
−1
). A significant part of the cost was fixed items, as a two-year tractor and a trailed
collector (for 2017) were used for mechanized harvesting. The difference compared to previous
research was the deployment of a completely new set during a two-year period on varieties that
have not yet been evaluated. The economic efficiency over two years was elaborated in detail, which
highlighted the benefits of multi-annual use. In terms of examining losses, differences were shown
not only between varieties, but also between years, and these data were statistically verified. The
paper evaluates the dependence of the use of mechanized harvesting on changes in the purchase
price of grapes (increasing it also exponentially increases the required area) and on changing the
hourly wage of an employee (increasing it degressively reduces the required area). From the results it
can be said that statistically and economically significant outputs were achieved for the deployment
of machine collection.
Keywords: grape; harvest; mechanization; losses
1. Introduction
On a nationwide scale, the vineyard is grown on an area of approx. 8 mil. ha, although
within the Slovak Republic, it is currently grown on an area of 18,000 ha. Specific cultivation
technologies are still characterized by a relatively high need for manual labor, which is 400
to 600 h
·
ha
−1
of fertile vineyard. One of the most demanding work operations in terms of
labor is the collection of grapes, which accounts for up to 30% of the total need for working
time (in practice it represents 120–160 h
·
ha
−1
). Grape harvesting can be affected by several
factors under operating conditions (meteorological factors, grape health, varieties, yield,
type of line and planting clips, total area harvested). In recent years, the more complex
availability of labor and the rising cost of human labor have been a significant factor.
These aspects therefore lead to the increasing use of fully mechanized grape harvesting
with the use of tractor-mounted or self-propelled harvesters [
1
]. In Slovakia, agriculture
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 4621. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11104621 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
