This machine is used to harvest hundreds of Brussels sprouts

This massive piece of machine is part of the way Brussels sprouts end up on our plates from the grocery store or farmer’s market.

Netherlands-based company Tumoba uses research and development to create pieces of equipment that can harvest, package and transport vegetables. The Tumoba 4-row Brussels sprout harvester, shown in the video above, is just one of the company’s crop-picking machines designed for maximum efficiency and safety.

What makes this model particularly effective is that it can sort good sprouts from bad sprouts. The commercial equipment is designed with a built-in “butterfly.” It’s an optical pre-sorting mechanism that discharges rotten sprouts (ones affected by cabbage-fly or infected with bacteria) from healthy sprouts. This ensures that the bad sprouts don’t contaminate the good ones, according to the company’s website.

Web-conveyors with rubbered bars replace traditional ones to release damaged sprouts and small leaves. Meanwhile, a large web belt is used to discharge oversized sprouts and dead leaves. But the butterfly is not the only compelling feature of the machinery.

Designed to reduce the amount of labor and negative impact on soil, the Tumoba harvester is both human and environmentally friendly.

Here’s how it works: Four operators sit at the front of the machine, and each one is assigned to a row of the crop.

Each row has a controlled arm with a stalk cutter. The machine moves through the field, cutting each stalk of the crop. The operators then hand feed the stalks into the stripping heads.

Then, the leaves and buttons are stripped and separated from the stalk. The leaves are left on the ground and the buttons are delivered into a bulk hopper. Eventually, the Brussels sprouts are inspected, packaged and transported to the store.

If this all sounds a bit too technical for you, watch the Tumoba machine harvest hundreds of Brussels sprouts in the clip above.

If you enjoyed this article, then check out this underground farm that grows plants without soil or sunlight.

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