Agriculture has always been about adaptation: tweaking practices, nurturing ideal conditions against the year’s odds, and honing in on cultivars that can be coaxed into thriving for a predictable harvest. It’s practicing equal parts ‘planning with foresight’ and ‘embracing what comes’ – and 2021’s cherry season certainly required the stamina and resilience that draws from both elements.

Will the apple harvest in North America require much of the same?

This piece is a part of our ongoing agtech feature series, highlighting bright innovations impacting the agricultural sector.

Sales of service-oriented robotics have been steadily growing in recent years, and unsurprisingly the adoption rate of robotics for agriculture is getting an extra boost due to new labor risks associated with the ongoing pandemic. Fieldworks Robotics is certainly one to watch for in the coming years, with multiple agtech projects in the works. Most recently, a partnership deal with Bonduelle is anticipated to yield cutting-edge picking technology for cauliflower.

Timing is critical in the farming industry, and harvest is no exception. In the apple industry, where product may be held in controlled atmosphere (CA) storage for long periods of time, determining the ideal harvest window is even more essential to guaranteed longterm quality.

The current apple and pear harvest season is defined by a dichotomy of abundance and adversity. In North America, a projected large apple crop, led by a record harvest in Washington State, is colliding with market oversupply, stagnant domestic demand, and crippling cost increases. This has created a critical financial squeeze, forcing some growers to consider drastic measures like orchard removal.

A seasoned and experienced orchard manager once said the following about the apple harvest:

We can’t put them back on the tree once they’ve been picked."

This article is part 1 in a 4 part series exploring apple thinning techniques and tools. This first part will cover the benefits of thinning as well as the main methods for setting targets to achieve when thinning. The following articles will get into the specifics of mechanical thinning, manual thinning and chemical thinning practices.

This article is part 2/4 in our Apple Thinning series and will cover mechanical thinning processes, advantages and disadvantages, and the tools most commonly used.

Apples are one of the most widely consumed fruits in the world, with a global production of over 86 million tons in 2020. However, the process of harvesting, storing, and distributing apples present numerous challenges for growers, packers, and shippers. In this article, we will explore some of the challenges facing apple growers and the technological and operational innovations that are helping to overcome these challenges.

We're thrilled to announce that Croptracker, a leading provider of farm management software, will be showcasing its cutting-edge solutions at this year's Fruit Logistica event located in Berlin from February 7-9. Fruit Logistica is a premier international trade fair for the global fruit and vegetable industry, and Croptracker is geared up to bring its latest innovations to the forefront of this prestigious gathering.

For most fresh produce growers right now, the pressure to protect already slim profit margins is high. In apples in particular, overproduction and staggering labour costs mean that no path to revenue protection can be ignored. One of the avenues our growers are increasingly headed down to help secure their profit is closer picker quality management.

With the risks of improperly handled harvest so high, the time spent training, monitoring and correcting picker performance is worth it. In this use case article, we will detail the why and how of defect monitoring at harvest for better post harvest management, higher pack-out rates and ultimately more return to the grower.

In this Croptracker Use Case blog, we will go over the in-field inventory and labour tracking features that help berry growers create inventory and pay records on the go. We will go through how Croptracker’s Field Pack module is designed to keep pace with harvest by integrating barcode scanning, offline piece tracking and custom product tagging. This is part two in a series on berry harvesting. To read part one where we detail some of the unique challenges facing berry growers, click here.

Croptracker is pleased to announce the latest update to its Harvest Quality Vision (HQV) system for apple growers. HQV 4.0 was launched in July 2023 in time for Apple Harvest in North America and offers increased accuracy and ease of use for all customers.

The quality of your fruit is the most important factor in getting paid. The right size and quality to the right buyer will get you the best price for your hard work.

Croptracker’s Harvest Quality Vision (HQV) has been successfully scanning apples, oranges, peaches, nectarines and other similarly shaped orchard fruit to gather size and color data since its launch 4 years ago. We are now proud to announce HQV can scan pears and irregularly shaped fruit with the same high level of accuracy!

An artificial intelligence approach to the apple industry’s most common quality test

Croptracker is proud to announce the launch of Starch Quality Vision; the latest artificial intelligence assessment tool for apple growers. Starch Quality Vision (SQV) technology empowers orchard managers and apple growers to empirically and accurately score starch pattern index (SPI) tests without the need for a trained assessor.

A Cornell University study that researchers began in 1997 has finally reached maturity - and it has a lot to say about how planting densities and tree shapes affect apple orchard yield and performance.

Harvesting season is no small feat of time-sensitive orchestration, with end goals of maximizing produce quality for consumers as well as growers’ return on investment. Bin tagging is an invaluable piece of the puzzle for maintaining harvest continuity and traceability, but between regional variations, different commodities, and operational preferences, there’s more than one practical approach to getting the job done. This is why flexibility is a cornerstone of Croptracker’s entire ERP suite – and the Harvest module’s workflow versatility is only expanding with greater bin tagging options, like pre-printing.

After a busy 2020 with the initial rollout of Harvest Quality Vision (HQV), Croptracker’s post-harvest computer vision solution, the team is pleased to announce the launch of a further streamlined update. Functioning as a “virtual pre-sorter” for any point along the supply chain, HQV 2.0 captures hundreds of data points for each piece of detected fruit in five seconds, all with just an iPad.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve taken a look at crop load management, from the basics to the scientific models behind the development of precision crop load growth calculations. While crop load management is one of the most difficult aspects of growing, it is without a doubt a critical step in planning and maximizing yield and profit. In the third installment in our series on precision crop load management, we’re highlighting some of the tools and decision aids growers can use when hand thinning in the orchard.

It all comes down to the harvest.  Croptracker aims to make this - the most important few weeks of your year - easier to manage, safer for your team, and more profitable by eliminating errors and delays.  In this blog post, we go over everything you need to know about harvesting with Croptracker via the desktop app.  (See our next post for how to harvest via the mobile app!)