Dealer Index located on Page A10
MARCH 2023
Volume 40
48 Pages
P.O. Box 306, Colfax, WA 99111
Phone: (509) 397-2191
Number 12
MAKING THE CUT
Courtesy of Matt Whiting/WSU
A team of researchers takes images of trees in an apple orchard owned by Allan Brothers Inc. on Jan. 26. Left to right are an OSU graduate student; Cindy Grimm, an OSU associate professor; another OSU graduate student; two WSU graduate students; Dave Allan, the apple grower; another WSU graduate student; and Joe Davidson, an OSU assistant professor.
Researchers aim to replace human pruners with robots
P
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN Capital Press ROSSER, Wash. — On a cold but sunny January morning, three men walked through an orchard north of Prosser, Wash. Passing through a block of Envy apple trees surrounded by patches of snow, they talked of automation, imagining a future when trees could be pruned not by human hands gripping shears but by robots. The trio — Dave Allan, a grower; Ruben Gonzalez, the orchard manager; and Matt Whiting, a Washington State University scientist and professor
— were analyzing tree parts in one of Allan’s orchards. Their aim was to collect information that could be useful for researchers working to create intelligent robotic pruning systems. “This is really exciting work,” said Allan, 79, whose family owns Allan Brothers Inc. in Central Washington. To Allan, the move toward automation seems logical — perhaps even unavoidable. He’s not alone. The agricultural industry is pushing to automate in the face of rising labor costs and a shrinking workforce. The percentage of Americans working in “farm occupations” was See Robots, Page A9
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