Willamette Valley grape growers watched the skies closely during this past season. Mother Nature toyed with them, as she does nearly every year, challenging them to choose the best possible hours for grape harvesting.

Once they made their decision to harvest, the success of their season was often related to how efficiently they could bring the grapes in. To boost efficiency, growers are increasingly taking advantage of mechanized harvesting.

While growers in France and California are accustomed to mechanized grape harvesting, it is still quite new to the Willamette Valley. Only a few mechanical pickers are currently in operation in the Valley.

One of those pickers belongs to Joel Myers, owner of Vinetenders, a vineyard management business in operation since 1984. Myers acknowledges that buying his Pellenc picker was a slightly risky move. “There are still a lot of negative attitudes toward mechanical picking,” he says, “but those attitudes are based on experiences from 10-15 years ago.

Just like any technology, in that amount of time everything has changed.” And Myers believes the time is right to change harvesting methods in the Valley.

Eola Hills Wine Cellars’ winemaker, Steve Anderson agrees. “It makes economical sense to me to machine harvest, and machine harvesting makes just as good wine,” he says, “I haven’t seen any negative qualities in machine harvested grapes.” Anderson does emphasize the importance of good pre-picking practices, however.

Those practices include conducting a good sampling and properly adjusting the harvesting equipment to ensure a harvest that is free of rotten and immature grapes and has a low percentage of material other than grapes.

Myers believes that for harvesting quality fruit there are only three viable picker choices: Korvan, Braud, and Pellenc. His choice of Pellenc was based on three additional factors that could not be matched by the other brands: 1) innovation, 2) a multifunctional platform, and 3) product support. Pellenc is consistently ahead of the game in innovation. Currently, they are in the final stages of adding on-board, light-sensitive, automated grape sorting equipment to their picker.

Myers initially purchased the Pellenc tractor and a leaf-puller attachment. He plans to add implements such as a sprayer, cultivator, hedger, and wire lifter as his mechanized harvesting business grows. Because each of these implements attach to his Pellenc tractor, the system is an economical one.

Surprisingly Pellenc pickers, which are manufactured in France, have John Deere engines. “That is what makes my Pellenc purchase a complete package,” Myers states, “I get a top-quality harvester, serviced by Fisher Farm & Lawn. That’s a tremendous advantage.” Fisher Farm & Lawn has made a significant commitment to the sales and service of Pellenc equipment. Carl Laux and Dustin Grell, of the company’s McMinnville store, are their grape-harvesting specialists. They are onsite whenever Myers needs their assistance, and Grell has trained both Myers and Vinetender’s employees in operation of the equipment.

Taking advantage of high-tech mechanized options in the vineyard has the added advantage of allowing growers to better manage their labor resources. “We need to have people do what they do best and have machines do what they do best,” Myers says. As an example of this philosophy, a grower may request Vinetenders to use an implement for leaf pulling and redirect their human resources to fine-tuning the crop.