At year’s end, when costs of all the grapevine tasks are added up, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates’s Mike Means calculates that the company saves more than $750 per acre in labor costs by using machines for pruning, shoot thinning, leaf removal, sucker control, and harvest. Means noted that his estimated costs (“Labor cost comparisons per acre”) do not include cost of the equipment, but represent the labor to operate the machines. Ste. Michelle’s mechanized vineyards need no crop load adjustments or color thinning, Means said. “Our philosophy has been to open up canopies through mechanical shoot thinning and leafing so […]