Post-Harvest Handling Decision Tool > General Considerations >
Equipment Considerations

Much of the work that distinguishes market farming happens by hand instead of by machine, and this is even truer of the work at the post-harvest handling stage. The speed at which a farmer can accomplish tractor work can be directly correlated to the size of the tractor and the equipment mounted on it. Mechanical harvesting systems often increase the speed of harvest by orders of magnitude; post-harvest equipment, particularly for the smaller, diverse market farms that are the focus of this document, may increase speed by a factor of only two or four.

With manual labor such as that required to move bunched greens into and out of a crisping tank, skill and motivation can make a much bigger difference than a properly-configured setup. In addition, the up-front investment of time and energy that goes into setup and cleanup can make a huge difference in the overall efficiency of an operation handling a diverse range of products.

The combination of diversity of operations, modest efficiency gains, and the manual nature of the work makes investments in new equipment and facilities significantly less concrete than simple number crunching.

The Post-Harvest Handling Decision Web

The following considerations form more of a decision-making web than they do a simple decision-making tree; an investment decision need not pass each consideration to be a good decision for your operation.

Strict (Mostly) Financial Considerations

Reduced Handling

Increasing the speed of post-harvest handling operations can actually reduce the amount of time workers spend moving product around the packing shed.

If operations happen quickly enough, produce can be washed as soon as it comes out of the field, instead of moving into and out of a cooler. This may require some redistribution of labor, with a distinction between the harvest and packing crews; or, it may be more advantageous with some crops than it is with others. At a larger scale of operations, such as that at Gardens of Eagan, the ability to move crops directly from the harvest vehicle into the packing process avoids an entire step of stacking and un-stacking totes of produce, increasing handling speed and reducing wear and tear on the farmworkers’ and farmers’ bodies.

In addition, rapid handling of product can increase the effective batch size handled at one time without increasing the time product sits outside of the cooler, resulting in much less effort in the movement of products. A standard handcart can handle five bushel boxes, while a pallet and pallet jack can move thirty bushel boxes with only a marginal increase in effort.

Product Improvement

In addition to improving the speed at which product is handled, post-harvest handling equipment has the potential to increase product quality. Rapid removal of field heat can significantly improve the shelf life of a product, increasing value to retailers, restaurants, and institutions, as well as final consumers. This increased value can translate into increased sales as well as an increased price.

“Back of the Envelope” Return on Investment Analysis

A Return on Investment analysis, or ROI, provides an answer to the question, “How long will it take to make a profit from this investment?” For large investments, this analysis can be very complete and thorough; for smaller investments, a back-of-the-envelope analysis can provide the information you need to decide whether to move forward. The main question we want to answer is, “Is this investment going to help my farm be more profitable within an acceptable period of time?”

The basic formula for an ROI is the change in Annual Net Income as a result of the investment, divided by the Total Investment. The Total Investment divided by the Annual Net Income gives a more practical figure, the number of years it will take for the investment to provide a return.

Facilities Considerations

Before investing in post-harvest handling equipment, determine if your facilities have or can be modified to have the additional elements required to support the equipment.

Changes in water needs, electrical requirements, drainage, and space should be considered.

Weak Link?

Before investing in post-harvest handling equipment, you should first ask if another area of your farm operation should be addressed first.

It doesn’t make sense to scale up your handling capacity if you can’t consistently produce a crop, or don’t have the ability to get it out of the field, or have no place to sell it, or can’t store it until it’s time to sell it.

Sometimes, a weak link can occur because of a large point load, especially for storage crops. At Hog’s Back Farm, David van Eeckhout washes all of his storage carrots as soon as they are harvested; with five thousand pounds of carrots to wash in just a few days, a barrel washer will ease the workload considerably. On the other hand, if Hog’s Back was washing two hundred pounds of carrots each week for ten weeks, a barrel washer wouldn’t show the same benefits.

Business Structure

The structure of a farm business may point towards or away from the desirability of investing in post-harvest handling equipment. At Spring Hill Community Farm, Mike Racette and Patty Wright have kept their post-harvest equipment at a minimum because CSA members participate in the harvest, washing, and packing process. In this situation, simple systems with few moving parts make the most sense.

Similarly, a farm that relies on high school laborers to complete much of the washing and packing may find that several small crisping tanks make more sense than one larger tank. With several small tanks, one tank can drain and be refilled while others are in use; one large tank can create large pockets of downtime that a motivated and knowledgeable worker could fill with important tasks, but that a minimally-supervised crew of high school kids might not use wisely.

Certain pieces of equipment can help to create systems that workers plug in to, with widgets to crank and a machine to dictate the pace. They can also require a lower input of skills, speed, and personal motivation to do the job quickly and well. Bell peppers in a tank can be removed quickly or slowly, and may get scrubbed or may just get swished around, whereas peppers run through a brush washer move at a certain pace, reducing the human factor in how fast or how well the work gets done.

Is this Driving Me Nuts?

Most people get into farming, or stay in farming, for quality of life reasons. If your current systems leave your hands cold, break your back, or take away from the time you should be reading bedtime stories to your children, that alone can be an adequate reason to consider investing in post-harvest handling equipment.

The Ripple Effect

Occasionally, an investment will have far-reaching effects. For a farm that washes all of their fall roots at one time, speeding up the washing and packing process may provide an additional opportunity to finish fall field work. If that field work includes tasks such planting a final cover crop of rye that builds the soil and controls weeds, the effects of the additional time available at a critical moment may be hard to quantify, but it is meaningful nonetheless.

This information is part of a Post-harvest Handling Decision Tool developed by Chris Blanchard of Rock Spring Farm in Decorah, Iowa. The tool is a project of the Fruit and Vegetable Working Group affiliated with the Value Chain Partnerships program. This project was funded by the Iowa State University Extension Value Added Agriculture program and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Blanchard conducted case studies of three vegetable operations to gather information for this decision tool. Products referred to in this tool are not an endorsement by Iowa State University.