We do the main onion harvest with a self-propelled AVR Puma 3 harvester. It is a 4-row machine with 469 hp and an 8-tonne bunker, and it picks the onions up, cleans them and moves them onto a trailer, all gently so as not to damage the skin. With about 250 hectares of onions, an efficient and careful harvest is essential. The first phase of the harvest is done by our Grimme WV 180 windrower: it undercuts the onions, cleans them and lays them in windrows to dry.
What the onion harvest looks like
First the onion ripens and its tops fold over. Then the Grimme WV 180 windrower comes in: it undercuts the onions, cleans them on two rod conveyors and lays them in windrows, where they dry. Once they have dried, the AVR Puma 3 harvester moves in: it picks the onions up from the windrows along with leaf and soil residue, separates them on sieves and belts, and pours the clean crop into its bunker and from there onto the trailer. We do the same across the whole onion area, step by step, just as we describe through the growing season in our post on growing onions in Żuławy.
Why the Grimme WV180 on heavy clay
The Żuławy clay soils are heavy. A machine for such ground has to lift onions gently, so as not to bruise them or leave them in the field. The Grimme WV 180 windrower handles this well: with a working width of 180 cm it undercuts the onions, cleans them on two rod conveyors and lays them in even windrows to dry. It is the first phase of a two-phase harvest, and on clay it matters all the more, because light soil forgives more than heavy soil does.
Harvesting without damage, where quality starts
A gentle harvest is no whim. Every bruise is a spot where the onion can start to rot in the store. That is why we set up the harvest so the onions leave the field in the best possible condition. The rest of the quality is decided later, in the store.
From harvester to store
From the field we move the onions with a John Deere 6930 Premium tractor and a Wielton tridem trailer, on anti-bruise covers, so the crop reaches the store gently. Then the onions go to further cleaning, drying and grading, and then into a store of around 13,000 tonnes. The whole chain, from field to pallet, has one aim: steady quality and availability all year round, including for wholesale customers.
Part of our machinery fleet
The onion harvester is one of the machines we use to run the crop. We also use GPS RTK navigation and auto-steering, which together make up our precision farming. We describe all the equipment in our machinery fleet.
Want to see what else we work with? Check our machinery fleet or get in touch through our contact page.
