Mechanical Pruning: What labor issue?

The Evolution of Mechanical Pruning

There has been a lot of talk this week about farm labor issues, but it is not a new problem. Cornell has been researching the use of machines to prune Concord grapevines since the mid-1970s. In a 2009 paper, we demonstrated a 50%-80% cost reduction in crop management with the use of mechanical pruning depending on the level of manual follow-up labor.

We are continuing to research vineyard mechanization with new technology, precision viticulture, and even robotic pruning.