

Wisconsin farmer rakes in cranberries By Robert Imrie, Associated Press WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis.  Cranberry farmer Dan Brockman drives his new harvesting machine — "the ruby slipper" — through the vines. Finger-like steel rods submerged in six inches of chilly waters below him quietly nudge and shake the plants. Dan Brockman pulls the ruby slipper through cranberries in Wisconsin. Morry Gash, AP Berries float to the surface, a sea of red forming behind Brockman's tractor as he drives. His invention, five years in the making, promises a much faster way to harvest the popular fruit that is the basis of a $200 million annual industry and a staple of Thanksgiving Day tables. "If it works as well as it appears it does, yes, it will revolutionize cranberry harvesting," says Teryl Roper, a fruits crop specialist and professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "It is elegantly simple." According to Roper, there are about 1,200 cranberry growers in the United States and Canada. Wisconsin produces more than half of the estimated 575 million pounds of cranberries Americans consume each year, according to the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association. The ruby slipper is an alternative to mechanized water wheel beaters that have been used for decades to harvest cranberries. Brockman's invention has no movable parts other than spring-loaded arms upon which metal finger-like rods are mounted. As the device is pulled or pushed through flooded cranberry vines with a tractor, the arms follow the contour of the ground and the rods shake off the berries, much like someone shaking a small apple tree so the fruit rains down. The berries float to the top of the water, where workers gather them together and pump them into trailers and trucks for processing into juices, sauces and other products. By comparison, the self-propelled machine now used throughout the industry features a rotating beater similar to rotating cutters on old push lawn mowers that knocks the berries from the vines as the harvester slowly drives down flooded fields. Brockman, 47, started out by picking two fields with the ruby slipper and the next year the crop came back even better. He hired a consultant who found evidence the return crop was 17% to 24% better than areas harvested with a conventional beater, suggesting his invention did less damage to the plants than conventional beaters. Brockman invested $30,000 to develop his ruby slipper. A patent is pending. "I didn't build it with the concept that I am going to build something that everyone wants to buy. I was building it so I could harvest my crop better and more efficiently and it just happened that a groundhog finds an acorn," he says. BDT, a Wisconsin Rapids manufacturing company that bought the rights to build the machine from Brockman, has sold eight ruby slippers so far — priced at $7,000 to $9,000 depending on the width — and all the customers are happy with the results, says engineer and co-owner Dave Dix. It's the biggest technological development for the cranberry industry in 20 years, Dix says. Many larger growers now use three workers each operating a self-propelled water wheel beater, some costing up to $40,000 each, Dix says. BDT's testing shows Brockman's invention can do the same amount of harvesting in the same amount of time with one operator, Dix says. The machine can harvest four acres of vines in an hour, which is extremely fast. Brockman spent six years working in a paper mill before returning to the cranberry farm his father started in 1946. The idea for the ruby slipper came during hours of idle thinking while riding tractors or sitting in the silence of a stand while deer hunting, he said. "I always approach just about everything with the idea that there's a better way to do it," Brockman says. "You just need to find it." Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.