Capacitive throughput unit applied to stationary hop picking machine

Kumhála, F.; Kavka, M.; Prošek, V.

doi:10.1016/j.compag.2013.04.012

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Research efforts have succeeded in using capacitance to measure the yield of different plant products, such as forage crops, sugar beet, hops, potatoes and chopped maize biomass (Kumhála et al, 2009(Kumhála et al, , 2010. Under field harvest conditions, prediction accuracy of hops reached 96% (Kumhála et al, 2013). Machine vision Machine vision-based systems consider the ability of cameras and other optical technologies to capture raw images and/or videos and extract useful and actionable information.…”

Section: Indirect Measurement Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yield sensing technologies for perennial and annual horticultural crops: a review

et al. 2022

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Yield maps provide a detailed account of crop production and potential revenue of a farm. This level of details enables a range of possibilities from improving input management, conducting on-farm experimentation, or generating profitability map, thus creating value for farmers. While this technology is widely available for field crops such as maize, soybean and grain, few yield sensing systems exist for horticultural crops such as berries, field vegetable or orchards. Nevertheless, a wide range of techniques and technologies have been investigated as potential means of sensing crop yield for horticultural crops. This paper reviews yield monitoring approaches that can be divided into proximal, either direct or indirect, and remote measurement principles. It reviews remote sensing as a way to estimate and forecast yield prior to harvest. For each approach, basic principles are explained as well as examples of application in horticultural crops and success rate. The different approaches provide whether a deterministic (direct measurement of weight for instance) or an empirical (capacitance measurements correlated to weight for instance) result, which may impact transferability. The discussion also covers the level of precision required for different tasks and the trend and future perspectives. This review demonstrated the need for more commercial solutions to map yield of horticultural crops. It also showed that several approaches have demonstrated high success rate and that combining technologies may be the best way to provide enough accuracy and robustness for future commercial systems.

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Section: Indirect Measurement Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yield sensing technologies for perennial and annual horticultural crops: a review

et al. 2022

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“…As far as both the two steps harvest, the differences in terms of efficiency, working speed, and cleaning of the product after hop-picking machines could be related to an uneven distribution of cones along the bines, caused both by yield differences in single bines and operator errors. This affects the efficiency of the second processing step, due to the increased impurities in the final product (such as stems and leaves), longer working times, greater harvest losses [16][17][18], and poorer quality of the cone, with a consequent economic impact for the farmer [19][20][21]. In order to preserve the quality of hop cones, it is important to reduce the time between the bine harvesting and cone separation: A result which can be achieved, for example, by increasing the working speed of the picking machine.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical Hop-Picking Solutions in Italian Cultivated Areas

2020

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Hops for beer production are a crop of growing interest in Italy, requiring specialized harvesting equipment and infrastructure. Several studies have been conducted on hop cultivation and harvesting around the world, but information on Italian hop production is still very scarce. As it turns out, only a few Italian farms are self-sufficient, employing a mechanical harvesting system, while most of them resort to hand-picking. In this study, hand and mechanical hop-picking were investigated, highlighting the longest time necessary for the manual cut (65 ± 5 min for approximately 2 kg of fresh cones). Furthermore, different mechanical solutions for hop harvesting were evaluated; in particular, one hop-picking machine was tested at different settings (full speed and 75% of chain feed). At full speed, it was possible to collect an average of around 96 kg h−1 of fresh cones, while approximately 13% of cones were left unpicked. A speed reduction of approximately 25% made it possible to reduce the cone loss to 8%, with a cone collection of around 86 kg h−1. Lost and picked cones, however, were strongly related to the number of side-arms growing from the main bines. This experience made it possible to test an old solution for this emerging crop at moderate cost and with good sustainability for the Italian territory.

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“…They lead to irreversible transformations and losses. Such substances are for instance hop essential oils that are contained in the amount of 0.5-3.5%, depending on hop variety (Hofmann et al 2013;Kumhála et al 2013). The pilot studies showed a decrease of 15 to 25% of the overall content of essential oils present in the hops prior to drying at the current drying conditions (Kieninger, Forster 1973;Kirchmeier at al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parameters of the drying medium and dried hops in belt dryer

Rybka¹,

Heřmánek²,

Honzík³

et al. 2017

Res. Agric. Eng.

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Rybka A., Heřmánek P., Honzík I., Krofta K. (2017): Parameters of the drying medium and dried hops in belt dryer. Res. Agr. Eng., 63 (Special Issue): S24-S32.An important factor in hop growing is the process of drying. For this purpose belt dryers with follow-up conditioning are the most widespread but they are not ideal. In this respect, an analysis of the drying process was carried out in the belt dryer of Agrospol Velká Bystřice Co., Ltd. for the 'Saaz' hop variety. Drying parameters were monitored by means of fixed sensors, continuously sensing data loggers and samples taken for laboratory analysis (hop moisture, alpha and beta bitter acids, Hop Storage Index (HIS). The process of drying showed that hops are practically dry (10 ± 2.0% of moisture) already at the end of the second belt or possibly at the beginning of the third belt. It was also proved that hops are over-dried (moisture of 4 to 8%) and then they are adjusted by conditioning to the final moisture content of 8-10%. Excessive drying leads to cone disintegration, which makes any manipulation with hops for purposes of further processing difficult and results in greater losses of lupulin. The current state in the field of technology of hop drying and conditioning is not ideal. This refers to both operating costs and qualitative features of the final product. In belt dryers prevailing so far, following stationary picking lines, their drying process is directly linked to the continuous process of harvest. In belt dryers hop cones are dried at a drying air temperature of 55-60 o C for 6-8 h coming from original 75-85% of moisture to final 8-10% prior to conditioning. Bracts themselves, however, have moisture content of only 5-6%, while strigs may have a moisture content of up to 30%. Percentage of strig weight to the total cone weight (6-12%) has a great effect on subsequent moisture permeability during the conditioning of hop cones (Kořen et al. 2008). Controlled conditioning requires roughly up to a 1/3 of the total energy requirements needed for hop growing (Doe, Menary 1979). Stability of alpha bitter acids, being the key hop substance from the point of view of brewing technology, is sufficient at drying temperatures reaching up to 60°C. However, for some heat-labile substances the drying temperatures between 50 and 60°C in the final stage of drying are too high. They lead to irreversible transformations and losses. Such substances are for instance hop essential oils that are contained in the amount of 0.5-3.5%, depending on hop variety (Hofmann et al. 2013;Kumhála et al. 2013). The pilot studies showed a decrease of 15 to 25% of the overall content of essential oils present in the hops prior to drying at the current drying conditions (Kieninger, Forster 1973;Kirchmeier at al. 2005). Besides this amount, the sensory profile changes too, due to a loss of the more volatile components. With special aroma hop varieties, so called "flavour hops", whose 25Vol. 63, 2017, Special Issue: S24-S32 Res. Agr. Eng.doi: 10.17221/35/2017-RAE content and ...

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Capacitive throughput unit applied to stationary hop picking machine

Cited by 11 publications

References 5 publications

Yield sensing technologies for perennial and annual horticultural crops: a review

Yield sensing technologies for perennial and annual horticultural crops: a review

Mechanical Hop-Picking Solutions in Italian Cultivated Areas

Parameters of the drying medium and dried hops in belt dryer

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