Design and Field Test of a New Compact Self-Propelled Cabbage Harvester

Abstract. As a labor-intensive operation, manual harvesting greatly affects cost and therefore profitability in the cabbage industry. A new compact self-propelled cabbage harvester for small, separate fields was designed and field tested. This harvester included a crawler chassis, a picking mechanism, a lifting mechanism, a cutting device, and a leaf separator. Results of preliminary field tests showed that the harvester had good flexibility and maneuverability. Results of field performance tests showed that the harvester could pick cabbages with diameters of 15 to 25 cm, providing a harvesting capacity of 0.21 hm2 h-1 and a harvest loss of 10.2%. Compared with experiments conducted in traditional fields, harvest quality showed an improvement in fields with an experimental cultivation method. The harvest loss was reduced by 5.0%, while the picking rate and accurate cutting rate were improved by 3.0% and 5.4%, respectively.