Apples

Iowa’s Apple Comeback: How Modern Science Is Reviving a Pre-War Legacy

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 19:36:41 GMT

Before World War II, Iowa ranked among the top apple-producing states in the country. Today, researchers at Iowa State University are working to bring that legacy back, using modern orchard systems that help growers produce more fruit on less land.

“It’s an orchard packed with more than just fruit,” says Suzanne Slack, assistant professor of horticulture at Iowa State. “This orchard has rows of research — with each tree bearing lessons on the best way to grow apples in the state.”

Building on a Storied Apple History

Iowa has a long relationship with apples, and Slack wants to see that history blossom again.

“Iowa, like I said, has a rich history of producing apples,” Slack explains. “Before World War II, we were one of the top apple-producing states in the nation, true story, and we wanted to see what we could do to help bring back some apple production in Iowa.”

Where Slack stands isn’t just any orchard. It’s a research station that’s been part of Iowa State since the 1960s, founded by renowned apple breeder Spencer Beach.

“He developed quite a few different apple cultivars that we still eat today, like Cortland apples are one of his most favorite ones, or Chieftain, which are the yellow ones behind us,” Slack says. “We’ve had a legacy of apples in Iowa ever since.”

A Modern Orchard for a Modern Era

Slack joined Iowa State in 2021 with a clear mission — to help Iowa growers produce more apples from every tree. Her latest project is a 2-year-old orchard that looks very different from traditional Iowa orchards.

“This orchard here was planted in ’23, so it’s 2 years old,” Slack says. “As you can see, it’s full of apples. The one behind us is a Blondie — aptly named — apple, very cute. And what this is, it’s called a high-density trellising system.”

The design, known as a modified super spindle system, is common in places like Washington state and the Northeast — but rare in Iowa.

“Basically, what we’re doing is we are trying out some of the Midwest heritage apples, or apples that people expect to find in Iowa, on this system to see if they can produce apples at the same rate as a larger tree,” Slack explains.

High-Density Systems: Doing More with Less

Across Iowa, about 300 apple varieties are grown by nearly 500 growers. Slack and her team hope their research will help those growers decide whether high-density planting can work in the Midwest.

“It’s easier to pick, easier to manage, it’s easier to spray, you have less disease problems, you get actually more apples faster,” Slack says. “An apple tree, if you plant it like a standard one, it could take five to six years to make your money back. You’ll make your money back pretty quickly on this one, even with the added cost of the trellis.”

And this orchard isn’t even planted at full density.

“You can actually plant a tree in between every single one of these for 18-inch spacing, like a tomato,” she says.

The trees are pruned constantly to stay compact and productive.

“These branches actually are pruned in a renewal style, so every branch you see with an apple on it is eventually going to be removed,” Slack explains. “We don’t have any permanent scaffolding. The only thing that’s actually permanent is the stem or the main leader of the tree, and the way we can keep them small is we’re just constantly doing pruning on them.”

Finding What Works in Iowa

Not every variety adapts equally well to the trellis system.

“Honeycrisp and Gala love this system of growing,” Slack says. “They make their apples on spurs — so the branch comes out, then they make their little spurs and you see these big clusters of apples. Easy to pick, it’s great. They can make a lot of apples in a little space.”

Others, however, don’t perform as well.

“Granny Smith is probably the most popular household name that doesn’t like this system,” Slack says. “It’s because they make their apples actually on the tips of the branches, and I just said we cut all the branches off. We do all this renewal pruning on them, so we’re actually removing a lot of our fruit whenever we try to grow them on this system.”

A Future for Iowa’s Apple Growers

For Slack, this research isn’t just about science; it’s about creating opportunity for more Iowa growers.

“I hope that they can get more bang for their buck,” Slack says. “They can have apples, people can pick them, they can sell them. They can also reduce their space, have less labor costs, less pesticide costs. And I think it could make it more commercially viable for more folks in the state.”

Promising Potential? Why India Poses the Biggest Opportunity for Trade, But Also the Biggest Challenge

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:45:47 GMT

As trade tensions continue to impact both commodity and financial markets, the White House says the Trump administration is making progress on additional trade deals. The news comes as Vice President JD Vance was in the middle of a four-day visit to India, with both countries saying they had made progress in negotiating a bilateral trade deal. Delhi hopes this deal will help it avoid higher tariffs.

Vance announced the U.S. and India have “officially finalized the terms of reference for the trade negotiation.” He called it a “vital step,” saying it sets a roadmap toward a final deal.

India is just one of several trade deals in the works, according to the Trump administration. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday the Trump administration now has “18 proposals on paper” for trade deals.

“You have Secretary Bessent, Secretary Lutnick, Ambassador Greer, NEC Director Hassett and Peter Navarro, the entire trade team meeting with 34 countries this week alone,” Leavitt said in the press briefing. “We are moving at Trump speed to ensure these deals are made on behalf of the American worker and the American people.”

Leavitt also announced “the president and the administration are setting the stage for a deal with China.”

The Wall Street Journal reported the White House is considering slashing tariffs in order to de-escalate the trade war. Currently, tariffs are at 145%, but the White House isn’t considering cutting those to zero. Instead, the Wall Street Journal reports those tariffs will likely fall anywhere between 50% to 65%.

However, Treasury Secretary Bessent declined to comment on that report, saying there’s no unilateral offer from President Trump to cut tariffs on China. He also said it could take two to three years to reach a full trade deal with China.

Progress With India
Before the White House’s 90-day pause on higher tariffs for other countries expires on July 9, India is one country rushing to negotiate a trade deal with the U.S.

Just this week, Vance and Prime Minister Modi announced the t erms of reference for a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and India. The progress toward the agreement was a result of the meeting between the two this week.

“I am pleased to confirm that USTR and India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry have finalized the Terms of Reference to lay down a roadmap for the negotiations on reciprocal trade,” Greer said. “There is a serious lack of reciprocity in the trade relationship with India. These ongoing talks will help achieve balance and reciprocity by opening new markets for American goods and addressing unfair practices that harm American workers. India’s constructive engagement so far has been welcomed and I look forward to creating new opportunities for workers, farmers and entrepreneurs in both countries.”

During Vance’s speech in Jaipur prior to that, he said that the two countries had finalized the terms of reference for the negotiation.

“This is a vital step toward realizing President Trump and Prime Minister Modi’s vision because it sets a roadmap toward a final deal between our nations,” Vance said.

India’s Tariffs on U.S. Agriculture Products
India’s tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods are significant, which is a major point of contention in the U.S. and India trade relationship. Walnuts, for example, face a tariff of 100% into India. Vegetable oils have a tariff of up to 45%.

The United States has one of the lowest average applied tariff rates on agricultural products. But many of our trading partners maintain prohibitive tariff rates that constrain export opportunities for American farmers and ranchers.

Unfair and non-reciprocal practices have… pic.twitter.com/mmy5spBEzl
— United States Trade Representative (@USTradeRep) April 23, 2025

The U.S. argues these tariffs are unfair trade barriers, and Mark Knight of Farmer’s Keeper Financial told AgDay the U.S. relationship with India over the years has been complex and strange.

“Sometimes it’s friendly, for the most part. But that’s a giant population, and it would go a long way toward making a potential deal with China less important if we could strike some deals with some of these other countries — especially India. We haven’t had something in place with India for years.”

India Has the Most Potential, But Poses the Biggest Problem
If you want to understand just how problematic India has been for trade in the past, just talk to Gregg Doud. He’s the current CEO of National Milk Producers Federation (NMFP) but served as the chief ag trade negotiator during the first Trump administration.

During an episode of “Unscripted” earlier this year, he said India has the most potential, but is the biggest problem.

Doud says history shows you India has been a problem, as the U.S. essentially kicked India out of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the past. The U.S. did finally agree to allow India back into the WTO, but under certain terms.

“I don’t want what I’m about to say to be seen as being negative toward the discussion between Modi and President Trump earlier this year, but one of the wins we did get in agriculture — which is my understanding based on some conversations — is that India lowered the tariff on U.S. bourbon from 150% to 100%,” Doud says.

He says while that may not have been the only win, it serves as an example for how difficult it is to negotiate with India.

India is a big customer of one main U.S. ag product, though: almonds .

In the 2023/24 crop year, the U.S. exported over 400 million lb. of almonds to India, making it the largest export market for California almonds. This was a 21% increase compared to the previous year. India’s almond imports from the U.S. were valued at $932 million in FY 2023.

India is the United States’ top buyer of almonds.

(U.S. Almond Board )

Doud says India has high tariffs to protect their own farmers.

“Think of it as a half billion farmers in India whose electricity, water, fuel, fertilizer and seed is all subsidized. India wants to keep that out in the country, and if we do anything that drives rural Indian folks into the cities, it would overwhelm them. This is the mindset,” Doud says. “I remind people, it was 5 or 6 years ago that India made a modicum of reforms of their domestic agricultural markets. There was so much unrest over those changes that Modi agreed upon to make, that three years later, they had to repeal the law.”

India’s Tariffs Crushed Apple Exports
U.S. apples are one commodity that has suffered from India’s retaliation in 2018.

“In 2018, India was the No. 2 market for U.S. apples until their retaliatory tariffs crushed our exports to near zero. They are rebounding back, but it might take years to return to the previous levels,” says Jim Bair, president and CEO of the U.S. Apple Association, in an interview with Farm Journal’s The Packer. “If the White House can facilitate that in a trade agreement with India, U.S. Apple wishes them Godspeed, and not a moment too soon.”

U.S. Apple says in 2018, India was the number two market for U.S. apples until retaliatory tariffs crushed their exports to near zero.

(U.S. Apple Association )

Potential With India
As the world’s most populous country, India holds massive potential if a trade deal can be struck. It boasts one of the fastest growing economies in the world with households that are seeing a high levels of consumer spending. That means agricultural products would be more accessible to a larger number of people.

According to USDA , top agricultural prospects for U.S. exporters include:

Cotton
Dairy products
Ethanol
Fresh fruit
Forest products
Processed food and beverages
Pulses
Tree nuts

USDA says in FY 2023, India imported $37 billion of agricultural and related products from across the world, with imports up 51% over the past five years.

“Proportional to its population, India imports a relatively small value of products. Comparatively, China, a country with a similar population size, imported $262.7 billion during the same period. Currently, India ranks behind much lower population countries like Canada and South Korea in total agricultural and related imports. This relatively low level of imports suggests good opportunities for future growth,” the USDA report stated.

Much of the recent growth of imports in India is with vegetable oils, which is the country’s top imported ag product.

USDA says imports of vegetable oil increased by $9 billion, nearly doubling in 5 years, to a total of $18.4 billion in FY 2023.

The United States has occasionally been a supplier of soybean oil to India, but imports face stiff competition from other substitutable oils like palm and sunflower, and from imports from India’s traditional soybean oil suppliers: Argentina and Brazil.

How Kait Thornton Amassed a Half-Million Social Media Followers by Connecting Consumers with Their Food

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 16:33:39 GMT

When Kait Thornton sold her first box of fruit, she needed a ride to the meet-up spot because she wasn’t quite old enough to drive. A fourth-generation apple and pear grower from Tonasket, Washington, her shift into selling fruit was inspired by her dad, who challenged her to sell 20 boxes of apricots grown in the family orchard. She posted an ad on Facebook marketplace and “ended up selling 44 boxes,” she explains on the latest episode of the Grow Getters podcast .

Her dad told her she was good at marketing and meeting the public and offered her an opportunity to sell their orchard’s apples and pears, which is the majority of their fruit. “I just enjoyed it and Kait’s Crates was born.”

Gifted with an entrepreneurial spirit, she flourished in selling and marketing the family’s fruit and, while still in high school, started making a name for herself on various social media platforms, especially TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Even during her time as a student at Washington State University, she went home on most weekends. “I was tying down truckloads and getting social media content and selling a bit of fruit on my way back,” she tells podcast host Davis Michaelsen.

Now a 22-year-old graduate, she communicates regularly with a half-million followers as “Apple Girl Kait.” While she still works in the orchards, she fills much of her days creating social media content as well as helping to market and sell the family’s produce.

“A lot of people who do what I do don’t like to go by ‘influencer,’ but I don’t really care,” she says. “I want to change the connotation behind the word. I want to influence people to purchase fruit and to understand where that fruit is coming from and who they’re supporting with their dollar.”

From the techniques used to grow the fruit to the picking process to the complications of shipping, storing and selling, she introduces her audience to the entire supply chain. “I want people to realize that when they see fresh produce sitting on the store shelves, it’s a miracle that it made it there.”

As far as the secret to her success, she points to being raised in agriculture. “There are so many valuable things you can obtain by being a farm girl,” she says. “Honestly, if you can do that, you can do anything.”

Watch the full Grow Getters interview

Find Kait on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@apple.girl.kait

Find Kait on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/applegirlkait

Yamaha Ag Q&A: When Can Growers Buy Farm Robots? North America Rollout Explained

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 12:59:00 GMT

Yamaha is a Japanese legacy automotive and motor sports giant known the world over, but many aren’t aware that the company also has a long and storied history in ag tech.

Yamaha’s R-Max gas-powered spray helicopter launched in Japan in the 1990s, making it one of the first unmanned aerial application vehicles on the market for applying crop protection products to growing crops. FAZER-R was its next iteration of spray drones, and the company says it has over 2,800 units of both R-MAX and FAZER remote controlled spray helicopters deployed today with farmers around the world.

In late January, the manufacturer announced the launch of Yamaha Agriculture , a new U.S.-based company that will focus on delivering autonomous equipment and AI-powered digital solutions. The company came together as a single business unit as a result of strategic acquisitions of robotics and AI focused startups Robotics Plus and The Yield.

We recently connected with Nolan Paul, who was named CEO of the relatively-new ag tech division, to learn more about the venture as it gets a footing established on the West Coast. Previously Paul was Head of R&D Strategy and Emerging Technology for Driscoll’s, the global market leader in production of fresh berries.

Farm Journal (FJ): How long of a timeline do you anticipate until commercialized robotics solutions are available for growers to purchase?

Nolan Paul (NP): Robotics Plus’ Prospr vehicles are already deployed with customers and distributors in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

FJ: What type of specific use cases do you envision bringing to market that will leverage advanced data analytics and AI?

NP: A multitude of use cases with time to market based on the degree of technical difficulty. We already offer weather-driven predictions to customers in the form of yield forecasts and harvest and spray timing. The next set of use cases will be variable rate spray applications based on real-time sensing on the vehicle (e.g., spray volumes based on canopy density).

(Yamaha Agriculture)

FJ: How do you envision Yamaha’s robotic solutions being marketed/sold to growers?

NP: Robotics Plus already has distributor partners in the U.S. and Australia/New Zealand. However, it’s important for Yamaha to maintain direct relationships with growers, especially our larger customers, to optimize customer success and develop our product roadmap. Regarding our monetization approach, we believe growers should purchase our hardware solutions the same way they prefer to purchase the rest of their machinery. Some prefer to buy outright. Others prefer a financing or lease option. We remain open to alternative monetization options if it makes life easier for the grower.

FJ: Where will the new division Yamaha Agriculture be based? How many employees will make up the division?

NP: Yamaha Agriculture is a U.S.-incorporated business with subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand. Our headquarters is in the Bay Area as it provides easy access to Tokyo, Sydney and Auckland. We also have local offices in Napa, Calif., and Wenatchee, Wash., along with team members based up and down the West Coast. Currently, Yamaha Agriculture has approximately 175 employees.

FJ: Ag technologies that solve a specific problem for the farmer seem to be the solutions that are adopted by American farmers. Are there any specific issues that your technology will be able to solve for growers?

NP: Currently spraying and weed control with our Prospr vehicle. However, it’s a modular platform, so the product roadmap includes several implements such as mowing and under-row cultivation. Our goal isn’t to develop implements from scratch. We are partnering with implement companies to integrate their tools on Prospr.

Separately, we also offer yield predictions and crop recommendations through our acquisition of The Yield. These two capabilities lay the foundation for increased closed-loop opportunities (actionable insights) with a focus on reducing block-level variability.

FJ: Do you have any concerns with the new U.S. administration’s trade policies considering Yamaha Agriculture is targeting the U.S. as a primary market for your technology?

NP: Yamaha sells a lot of products in the United States, ranging from motorcycles to outboard motors, ATVs and golf cars. As a result, we will take guidance from our broader organization and implement a strategy that is most effective for Yamaha Agriculture and our customers.

Your Next Read: What Technologies Are Farms Using and Why?

John Deere Introducing Next Generation Perception Autonomy Kits

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 18:30:00 GMT

John Deere is taking a step forward in autonomy and the technology retrofit market.

Chief Technology Officer Jahmy Hindman describes the effort as “real purpose, real autonomy”. He says the manufacturer is responding to the ongoing labor crunch that is causing headaches across the agriculture industry both domestically and abroad.

To help its users continue to farm with less reliance on human labor, John Deere has announced a suite of new retrofit autonomy kits for tractors and tillage implements, orchard sprayers, and even for the commercial landscape and construction equipment segments.

The kits feature redesigned camera arrays and rugged NVIDIA processing units paired with Blue River Technology’s machine learning algorithms, enabling John Deere machines to autonomously mimic how a human operator would react in the driver’s seat, without anyone actually sitting in the driver’s seat.

Let’s dive in and learn more about what John Deere is launching this week at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What’s New for Tractors?
John Deere and its integrated Blue River Technologies team have re-architected what it is calling its Next Generation Perception System autonomy retrofit kits. The kits are made for model year 2022 and newer 9R and 9RX tractors, and model year 20.5 and newer 8R and 8RX tractors. Also coming from John Deere is autonomy on its 5ML Series tractors.

To go along with its autonomous tractor kits, there are retrofit kits that outfit select 2017 and newer John Deere tillage implements with additional lighting, a GPS receiver mast, and harnessing for fully autonomous tiling. These autonomy ready features are factory installed as a base package for select model year 2025 tillage tools. Today, the system is only compatible with John Deere tillage implements with the autonomy kits installed, but in the future Deere is working towards compatibility with third-party tillage tools.

The new autonomy kits are made for model year 2022 and newer 9R and 9RX tractors , and model year 20.5 and newer 8R and 8RX tractors, as well as select John Deere tillage tools.

(Photos courtesy of John Deere)

Both autonomy kits will be sold within John Deere’s Precision Upgrades product segment, which the company re-branded in 2023. So far, the kits have been field tested across thousands of acres of cropland. John Deere representatives anticipate the kits will one day be compatible with planting, harvesting, and broad acre application machines. But today, autonomous field tillage is the first domino to fall.

“This expands our autonomous capabilities dramatically,” says Willy Pell, CEO, Blue River Technologies. “Farmers should not have to buy a new tractor to experience autonomy.

Pell adds the kits were designed with ease of installation in mind, especially for tractors and implements that come autonomy ready from the factory.

Let’s dive deeper into some of the components that enable autonomous capabilities within the Next Generation Perception Kits.

Let’s start with the kit’s redesigned camera arrays, which are installed onto the top of a compatible tractor model’s cab and wired into the control module. Within that new camera array are 16 stereo cameras that shoot continuously at triple overlap, giving the system a 360-degree field of vision around the tractor with plenty of redundancy for sensing crops, obstacles, potential humans and other hazards in the field.

What those cameras “see” is processed on ruggedized NVIDIA Jetson GPUs that can withstand temperatures down to -40 degrees F. With the cameras operating as the eyes of the system, the Jetson units serve as the brains and connective tissue, using edge processing to read, react, and fire off commands to the machine just as a human operator would.

Farmers that experienced John Deere’s tractor autonomy kits in the past – this version represents the second evolution of the technology since John Deere introduced it in 2022 – told the company they wanted the driver-less machines to cover more acres in a day, or night. John Deere made that happen, increasing speeds 40% to 12 mph with this iteration, and lighting kits have been added on to allow around-the-clock field work.

“We want to meet customers where they’re at today; our customers across the Midwest want to customize their tillage setups with various tools of different sizes and configurations, and we want to make as many of those tools autonomy capable with one system as possible, and that’s what we’ve done with the Generation 2 Perception System,” says Aaron Wells, Engineering and AI Systems, Blue River Technologies. “This is real autonomy that I can set, forget, and run in the field or monitor using John Deere Operations Center Mobile.”

Local John Deere dealers will have a limited number of kits available for 2025 with a full launch tabbed for 2026.

Orchard tractors and sprayers
The Next Generation Perception System kit has been slightly tweaked for permanent orchard crop growers. Those growers generally use lower horsepower machines with narrower footprints to complete tasks between trellised rows of grapes, tree nuts, and other orchard crops like apples.

In California’s massive specialty crop industry, John Deere says that over 50% of machine operator jobs posted by farming operations are going unfilled. John Deere believes its autonomy kits can lessen that reliance on seasonal labor and help farmers hit tight production windows in order to maximize yields.

The Next Generation Perception kit for orchard tractors and sprayers features fewer camera arrays than the row crop kit but adds an integrated LiDAR sensor to 3D image tree canopies and orchard trellising in real-time.

(Photos courtesy of John Deere)

Whether we’re talking about the large tractor autonomy kits or the orchard tractor-sprayer kit, the systems share many common components. Rather than needing 16 stereo cameras, the autonomous orchard tractor kit deploys seven cameras alongside three LiDAR sensors. The LiDAR sensors provide a real-time 3D image of vine and orchard crops as the tractor moves around the orchard, giving the machine the ability to tell the pull-behind sprayer implement where to apply and where not to apply.

The 5ML Specialty Tractor, along with the key Precision Essentials technology that will enable autonomy, JDLink Modem, StarFire Receiver, G5 Display, and John Deere Operations Center are all available today, with the autonomy kit being available in limited quantities in 2026.

“We’ve developed this incredible second-generation technology that allows us to scale across different crops and new industries,” says Igino Cafiero, CEO and founder, Bear Flag Robotics. John Deere acquired Bear Flag in 2021 for $250 million.

Something for your side hustle?
I have no data to back this up, but I would guess there might be some row crop farmers out there that might own commercial landscaping, construction, or excavation businesses in addition to farming full time.

For the commercial landscape segment, John Deere has extended its next Generation Perception kit to automate a new green and yellow autonomous battery electric zero-turn mower.

This autonomous battery powered commercial lawn mower remains in the concept stage today but John Deere anticipates it being available for landscape professionals in the future.

(Photos courtesy of John Deere)

While still in the concept stage of development, the commercial mower can be programmed to autonomously cut common professional landscaping patterns while its operator monitors the machine from nearby with what looks and feels like a beefed-up Xbox controller. There is also a rear standing deck that can be flipped down, with dedicated operator controls on the machine, in case the operator feels like hopping onboard and steering the mower.

And for the construction world, John Deere has applied the next Generation perception kit to create a driverless commercial dump truck. The truck can autonomously move material from Point A to Point B and even know exactly where it needs to dump its load. Site workers can use the John Deere Operations Center to define ideal routes and start, stop, and unload the giant diesel-powered machines from outside of the cab.

Again, like their row crop and specialty crop farming brethren, commercial landscape and construction firms are also feeling the squeeze of the labor shortage.

“There’s no better story, I think, than using technology for the benefit of humanity. It is our purpose and what pulls all of this together,” Hindman says. “Our number one mission in developing these kits is to help reduce the dependency on unskilled labor. We think autonomy is a significant answer to solving that dilemma for our customers.”

To learn more about the Next Generation Perception System head to Deere.com/autonomy

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3 Unique Characteristics of The Permanent Crop Industry

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 18:27:01 GMT

As the permanent crop industry experiences a large amount of mergers and investments, Jay Graham of Western Farm Advisors joined the Top Producer Podcast to share three of the biggest factors separating permanent crop operations and row crop farms.

Graham highlights how the production of apples, almonds, grapes and more sets up growers to make decisions based on unique considerations.

Labor
Graham shares the biggest difference between row and permanent crop operations is the amount of labor needed and the costs associated with it.

“Especially here in Washington, cherries have the largest need of labor because so much of it is all hand harvested,” he says. “It’s getting much more expensive and harder to find people.”

For example, in Washington state Graham says much of the labor permanent crop producers use comes from the H-2A program – which adds to the cost of the state’s high minimum wage.

“I think H-2A as of 2023 is somewhere around $24 [per hour] and there’s a set schedule for that to go up over time,” he says. “That only looks at part of the picture because you have to supply lodging and pay for permits and travel to get everybody into the country. You’re getting pretty close to $30 [per hour] for H-2A.”

Capital Investment and Returns
The cost of land for a permanent crop operation, such as an orchard, also looks much different than for row crops.

In Graham’s area, he estimates the values for Class A orchard ground could range from $16,000 to $20,000 per acre, whereas row crop ground in the same region is closer to $9,000 to $16,000 per acre.

The increased expenses don’t end there for permanent crops.

“The capital need is just so huge to get started,” Graham says. “Depending on what product you’re talking about – if it’s apples, hopefully you have full production in about four years. If it’s cherries, you’re probably more like five or six years. Pears are even longer.”

Graham estimates the cost to produce an acre of high-density, trellised apples is between $65,000 to $70,000.

With higher production expenses in permanent crops, however, comes higher returns.

“The risk reward normally works out very well. And we’ve typically seen returns in the mid-to-high teens over the last 20 to 25 years,” Graham says. “It’s definitely been great to be in the permanent crop space over the last many years.”

Flexibility
While row crop producers can switch out their crops year-to-year based on market prices and demand, permanent crops are a longer-term decision.

“You can’t change overnight,” Graham says. “You’re putting a ton of capital in and it’s four or five years out until you’re going to have a crop. You’re just hoping that consumer preferences haven’t changed for your variety or even worse, maybe for your entire commodity.”

To hear more from Graham on the permanent crop industry, tune into his episode of the Top Producer podcast .

CNH Industrial Invests In Robotic Fruit Harvesting Platform

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 15:12:10 GMT

California-based start-up Advanced Farm Technologies has received a minority investment from CNH Industrial. Advanced Farm Technologies designs and builds robotic harvesters for apples, strawberries and other fruits.

Its first harvester was for strawberries, and last year it launched the apple harvester for use in Washington. The two platforms use a lot of the same technology–computer vision and machine learning tech stack. The apple picker features multiple robotic arms on each harvester and suction cup grippers.

In CNH’s announcement, the company says robotic harvesting of high value crops increases efficiency up to five times. Currently, 70% of U.S-grown strawberries are hand harvested, and 46% of apples are handpicked.

CNH leaders say the company is in “a technology growth mode, committed to customer-inspired innovation. This latest investment is part of our broader strategy to bring cutting-edge solutions to our portfolio. We are especially focused on automated, autonomous, and sustainable farming innovations that solve important and complex challenges for our customers.”