In the coffee harvesting, the harvest is considered the most complex operation because of its great influence in the harvesting cost therefore, mechanization of the same may have significant effect on reduction of the final cost of the bag of harvested coffee. The objective of this research was to evaluate the operational performance of portable coffee harvesting machines and to evaluate the operational cost of the semi-mechanized harvest system in comparison to the system of manual harvest. The trials were conducted in five plantation of coffee crop variety Catuaí 74 (IAC 62), under different management conditions. Three models of portable coffee harvesting machines available commercially and in use were evaluated. The experiment was constituted of 20 treatments (combinations of three types of portable coffee harvesting machines plus manual harvest and five types of coffee crop), in a randomized block design. On the basis of obtained results, it may be concluded that the semi-mechanized coffee harvester presented superior operational performance in comparison to manual harvest system, becoming a viable alternative for the small to medium size farmers in order to minimize the production costs.
coffee harvester; portable coffee harvesting machine
