Page 43 - Grapevine NovDec 2021

Around The Vineyard

way by first educating themselves on the safety, However, the tools offered at Zenport can make a
operation, maintenance and proper use of Zenport big difference if labor is an issue.
tools,” said Shatto. “Zenport offers an easy-to-read
manual and maintenance instructions, including “Zenport battery-powered pruners have excel-
over the phone support to help the vineyard man- lent endurance,” Shatto said. “A sharp blade and
ager with not only technical and service support charged battery will keep the user pruning all day
issues, but also operational and safety concerns.” long! A person who is healthy and very experi-
enced with pruning can prune very fast. As a day

Pruning Considerations and Tips of hand-pruning progresses, even the fastest of the
fast will start to slow down, while the person with
One of the most significant decisions to make the battery-powered pruner will stay consistent all
is whether to machine-prune, hand-prune or do day long. You can count on the consistent perfor-
a combination of both. Hand-pruning is labor-in- mance.”
tensive, especially for large vineyards. Pruning Shatto also said it is wishful thinking to expect a
machines can keep workers safe if they are trained full crew of young, fast and experienced workers to
properly; however, this is a costlier approach never get tired and always be available.
to vineyard maintenance, especially for newer
vineyards and vineyards struggling to make ends “With the battery-powered pruner, a vineyard can
meet. Therefore, it often comes down to weigh- utilize a much larger labor pool, including people
ing the pros and cons of short-term investments who know what they are doing, but their arms or
versus long-term cost and labor savings. Yet, com- wrists just can’t take rigorous hand-pruning any
mon-sense rules still apply, such as having workers longer,” he said. “There are a lot of folks who miss
take breaks, stay hydrated and work in teams. being out in the vineyard but who just can’t do the
work because of the pain.”
Van Hoorn said vineyards should consider mecha-
nization because it is easier than they might think.
She said small, hand-held electric pruning shears
can increase vineyard productivity by 30% on aver-
age and that it only takes a few minutes to mecha-
nize an entire crew.
“Pruning is the number one labor expense for
most vineyards, and minimum wage in many parts
of the U.S. is going up,” Van Hoorn said. “Many of
our clients are experiencing 14% increases in pric-
es that they pay labor crews and contractors each
year, so an investment in mechanization now will
have huge payoffs!”

Aside from productivity, Van Hoorn said other
benefits of mechanization include better crew
retention rates, fewer repetitive motion injuries
and better cuts that improve consistency and the
quality of the grapes while reducing the risk of dis-
ease.

Shatto from Zenport said that a vineyard can
decide its best pruning strategy by evaluating
each pruning job and the available resources. It
is Zenport’s position that using a battery-pow-
ered pruner doesn’t mean you stop hand pruning.

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