First Paragraph: About 100 mechanical grape harvesters are currently in use in California. Each year one machine typically harvests the fruit from 250 to 300 acres. Currently, the total tonnage of California grapes harvested by machine is below 10 percent. This percentage is expected to increase since most of the new grape plantings are wine varieties with the vines trained for mechanical harvest. Some of the more easily converted older vineyards are gradually being set up for machine harvest.
