Industry Related News

Good Fruit Grower Feature

Wind Machines

"Wind machines have been a skyline feature in orchards and vineyards in the Pacific Northwest and California for a long time, but now they’re sweeping into apple orchards in Michigan and New York at a rapid pace.

It’s not a case of locking the barn after the horse is gone. Yes, growers in the Midwest and Great Lakes states were hurt badly by freezes in April 2012, but they were making the move to wind machines even before that. Increasingly, growers realized they had to protect the ever-costlier ­investments they were making in new, modern orchards.

Apple packers and sellers were telling them they needed a stable crop of apples every year if they were to market them effectively. The graph depicting Michigan apple production over the years looks like the teeth of a saw, spiking up and down.

Freezes in Michigan last year cut production 89 percent to less than 3 million bushels, but many now believe..."

Article by Richard Lehnert

Read more at https://www.goodfruit.com/wind-machines/