Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | O | OEM Off-Highway

Field of Greens.

Article Excerpt
Field of Greens

by Chad Elmore

Innovative engineering solves tough challenges for the fresh vegetable industry.

Built almost entirely of stainless steel, the Headrazor romaine lettuce harvester shined at the 2008 World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA. The latest machine from Ramsay Highlander, the Headrazor highlighted the challenges manufacturers must overcome when creating mobile equipment for the fresh vegetable industry, while at the same time it showed off the problem-solving and manufacturing capabilities of the OEM and its suppliers.

To stay in business, today's vegetable grower must raise and harvest fresh produce safely (for both the workers and consumers), quickly and efficiently with fewer hands in the field. Fresh lettuce can go from a West Coast field to an East Coast table in under a week. Harvesters, such as the machines built by Ramsay Highlander, are the first step in a bagged salad's journey to a grocery store near you.

Ramsay Highlander Inc. started as a welding shop in 1969. The firm's unique name was adopted ten years ago and combines the Scottish founder's last name with the brand of the company's staple product. The Highlander Harvesting Aid is a diesel-engined, four-wheeled, laterally-moving conveyor for fresh vegetables and fruit picked by hand. President and CEO Frank Maconachy acquired the company from his father in-law in 1997, who purchased the firm from Verne Ramsay when he retired. The company still custom-builds self-propelled conveyers as well as mechanical spinach/spring mix harvesters.

The company calls "America's Salad Bowl" home with operations in Gonzales, CA. Located in the area where most of the United States' lettuce is grown and agriculture is a $3 billion industry, the company works directly with customers to provide solutions for their agricultural businesses.

Much of Ramsay's engineering work is done in-house. "Sometimes we can work off something we have done in the past," says David "Coon" Offerdahl, Ramsay Highlander's vice president of engineering. "But very little of the Headrazor uses anything we have done before. This has become more common in the last few years. Everyone wants something new and different."

Offerdahl and Scott Harlan, Ramsay's director of R&D, usually do not have much of a window in which to take a customer's notes and then design and build a machine. "One of the most challenging aspects in our industry is the short design time," says Offerdahl. "Our customers purchase new equipment based on receiving new harvesting...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!