A simple mock-up shows the idea behind the over-the-row platfom that is being developed.  A team of research and Extension people in the Pacific Northwest is working on a big idea—an over-the-row contraption that will carry workers on suspended platforms through an orchard five or seven rows at a time, depending on the row spacing. It will be propelled by a tractor with booms going over the tops of two or three rows on each side, spanning 50 or 60 feet. The booms will be high enough to clear a 12-foot-high tree canopy. The platforms, which will be about five […]