The news of the Holland Braud Grape Harvesters

After celebrating 40 years since the launch of Braud grape harvesters (we talked about it in Issue 6, 2020), New Holland engineers have updated the range with two significant new features: a destemming net called blue, and the Combi-Grap sorting system, available only on the compact model Braud 8030L. The New Holland destemmer, which has been offered on Braud grape harvesters since 2002, ensures the best product quality as it removes the grapes from the stalks and separates them by separating the fragments, discarding the stalks and the leaves. In this way, only clean grapes reach the hopper. The blue destemming net has smaller holes to improve the harvesting of tiny grapes, such as merlot or cabernet, and the sorting of small MOG (material other than grapes), resulting in a high-quality grape sample, particularly for red grapes. “A wider range of nets,” says Philippe Boisseau, marketing specialist grape and olive harvesters at New Holland Agriculture Global, “allows us to offer our customers additional options for their destemmers to optimize sorting, and thus obtain excellent wine grapes». Today, New Holland’s destemmer line includes a pink model with 24 x 24 mm holes appreciated for its versatility (it can be used in all conditions), a white model with 29 x 25 mm holes perfect for high yields, or coarse berries, and the previously mentioned blue destemmer. The new Combi-Grape technology includes a sorting surface with rollers positioned under a standard destemmer. The conveyors load the grapes into the destemmer, while the stems are expelled at the back of the machine. All the free berries and any processing residues fall on the sorting surface equipped with open rollers that allow the berries to fall into the hopper. The pieces of leaves and stalks are driven by rollers on the side of the machine and then dropped. The Combi-Grape system is able to remove all the stalks from the crop, therefore, it provides higher quality than the standard destemmer. The sorting surface - it can slide sideways to simplify the machine cleaning operations - has been built to work in the most different conditions. Depending on the varieties grown, it can process grapes of various sizes, and the operator can set (from the cab) the distance between the rollers from 14 mm to 23 mm.