He Built His Own Asparagus Harvester

He Built His Own Asparagus Harvester CROPS Miscellaneous Stewart Holliday’s modified zero-turn lawn mower makes it easy to pick stalks from his asparagus field It eliminates the need to bend to pick spears from his nearly 40 000 plants     “I started with a Dixon zero-turn and used 2 by 3-in steel tubing to extend the frame ” he says “The longer frame let me move the seat forward and down and adjust the pitch I bought new cables that let me reposition the foot pedals and controls as well ”     Holliday framed in supports for a basket to the side of the operator’s seat as well as another one above the rear He later added a swivel from a boat seat so the operator can turn to drop the asparagus into the side basket     “I learned after the fact that I needed the swivel ” says Holliday “The seat can be adjusted up and down or back and forth to match the operator’s legs The pitch was the big thing to get the operator as close to the ground as possible with minimal bending ”     Holliday says the picker works great whether using a knife or just breaking the asparagus off He drives over the row with wheels to either side     Holliday lives in Arizona most of the year but has developed other practices to make it easier to grow and harvest the asparagus on his Wisconsin farm Each spring he applies chicken manure and barn lime and disks the patch to about a 2-in depth After he drags it he plants winter rye at a heavy rate drilling it in 2 directions     “I don’t go deep enough to hurt the asparagus ” he notes     As the rye emerges along with the asparagus it keeps his picker from digging grooves in the field “Once you cut a groove it is there for the season ” he says     When the rye reaches 8 to 9 in he mows between the rows every week or two As it gets taller in the row he will pick the asparagus to the ground and then mow the row     He prefers to burn the entire field in the fall but this past fall the asparagus remained green too late He will burn this spring before disking and seeding     “The asparagus really likes what we are doing ” says Holliday “Last spring it grew so fast I was picking twice a day from the end of May through the first part of June ”     Holliday sells wholesale off the farm Finding buyers hasn’t been hard     “I put an ad on Craigslist and had to take it down after 2 days; I had so many orders ” says Holliday “I had one lady ask for 400 lbs and took another 400 lbs a few weeks later A couple of older guys drove 2 hrs to pick up 40 lbs ”     Holliday has since added a walk-in cooler he purchased used from a local school and is considering a refrigerated box truck     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Stewart Holliday 6104 W Gambit Trail Phoenix Arizona 85083 ph 623 780-4686 or 602 908-4868

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