The Kimbolton Carrot-Crowning Machine
Developments
Cutting discs and axles on main rotor (click to enlarge)
Main rotor in frame with friction drive via tyres (click to enlarge)
The builders, Terry Hawkins on right, Rick Hastie on left
Until about five years ago, most carrots were harvested with some of the green, growing, carrot-tops still on the carrot. The whole carrot was taken to the processing plant, and the tops were removed as one of the first processing steps. Done manually, it adds great cost to the finished product, and it is not an easy task to mechanise. Carrots come in different shapes and sizes, are tapered, and easily damaged so standard automation techniques aren't suitable.
If carrots could be harvested without the tops, there would be big savings in several stages of the process. The transport requirements would be reduced. Handling at the factory would be simplified. There would be much less waste to dispose of from the factory site. The obvious place to put the cut-off tops is on the paddock they were grown in. There was one big problem stopping the implementation of this idea, the lack of a cost-effective way of “crowning" (i.e. cutting the greenery off) the carrots prior to digging them out of the ground. To have the job done manually would be even more costly than doing it in the factory because of the need to transport the workforce, and the reduced productivity due to the adverse working conditions.
COP Outcome development and evaluation
A search was made for a mechanical way of doing the job, and turned up an American machine, locally modified. This was tried and found to be expensive, unreliable, and hard to repair, due to the remote location of both skills and parts. Using this machine would simply transfer the factory de-crowning costs to the farmers, who would require better prices to compensate.These problems brought a temporary halt to hopes of on-farm carrot crowning.
Local experience plays a part
About this time a farmer in Kimbolton, Monty Brown, was growing carrots for the specialised juice market. The juice manufacturer was ill-equipped to handle carrot tops, and was prepared to pay extra for ready-crowned carrots. The high cost of overseas equipment caused Mr Brown to join forces with an engineer in Kimbolton to develop a suitable machine, incorporating the good features of the existing machine and eliminating its faults (Conceptual statement).
Terry Hawkins, the engineer, has had an agricultural machinery build-and-repair business in Kimbolton for many years, and has proven design skills so was a natural partner for the venture. The successful outcome of this venture, the Kimbolton Carrot-Crowner, soon came to the notice of the main food processing companies, who identified its potential for the whole industry, not just the juice market.
