How is coffee harvested?

How is coffee harvested? For those using mobile devices: Subscribe link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj_A... Website links: http://www.100mileauthor.com/ http://www.100mileauthor.com/coffee-c... G’day folks I’m Paul Oliveri from 100 Mile Author. Today I’m at Shop 3 Coffee and tea which is owned and operated by the great husband and wife team Chris and Sonja. Located in the heart of Cairns Shop 3 is one of this coffee addict’s favourite haunts when in the city. Ironically while Chris spends the best part of his day making great coffee and knows a bucket load more about how to get the best from a bean… not even he has seen how coffee is grown or harvested. Come with me for a quick on-farm look at how coffee is harvested in Australia and learn a few little known facts about Australian coffee. Today were on the Atherton Tablelands at Australia’s largest coffee grower Howe Farming and behind me you can see a 1980s Brazilian harvester. While coffee has been grown in Australia for 200 years not many know this antiquated, butt ugly piece of machinery is the only reason we are able to produce coffee within Australia today. In the early 1900s the cost of labour and shipping to Europe markets increased so much the industry became unviable. Fast forward to the 1980s and some very dedicated growers took the risk of introducing or I should say re-introducing coffee to the agricultural landscape and invested in a variety of mechanical harvesters. Many like the one shown here…BUT how do they work? Operating one of these harvesters is part art and part science. The first challenge for operators comes with the height of these trees. Many people even those in agriculture picture coffee as a small shrub but as you can see Howe farming’s mature tree rival the height of the harvester itself. To make matters worse the view from the cab is a whole lot worse. Operators have to rely on experience and some very crude instruments to keep to a centreline so they don’t damage or kill the tree. This is in the form of the flashing green light…every time the operator drives off centre the light pops on. The real art form of harvesting is in operating the shakers. These two hydraulic shakers look like they’re turning and they are….very slowly. The real action happens as they vibrate up and down to shake the coffee cherries from the tree. This is at a speed determined by the operator. The speed at which they vibrate determines what type of bean is harvested…black berries called Booney, the bright red cherries or green bean. A poor operator will harvest a too green a blend which leads to a disgustingly bitter roast. Once shaken from the tree the coffee cherries fall onto a series of angled flaps which channel them into an elevator system. All the angles on the flaps and the speed of harvest are controlled by the operators who do an amazing job. The final step of harvest is where the beans travel from the elevator through an auger to a waiting basket on trailers pulled by tractors. There is a real art in driving these as well. Tractor operators have to maintain a constant pace with the harvester ensuring each basket in full but not overflowing. Well folks there you have harvesting coffee…if you’d like to see more of these videos click on the subscribe button and you’ll be one of the first to see our latest YouTube videos. Prefer to read some great articles and view photos from our on-farm team… just click on our logo and you’ll be whisked off to our website where you can browse and sign up for our emails…and we promise NO SPAM. Thanks for watching and we look forward to seeing you soon.