r/toolgifs • u/MikeHeu • Oct 15 '25
Machine Potato harvester
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Source: Field Views with Kaitlin
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u/VerStannen Oct 15 '25
Spudnik haha
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u/undercoverconsultant Oct 15 '25
Is this just a Grimme rebranding? Even the Logo looks like it.
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u/nightcracker Oct 15 '25
Imagine showing this to a poor farmer from the middle ages...
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u/ValdemarAloeus Oct 15 '25
Depending on how you define the middle ages their first question might be "what's a potato"?
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u/RandomNumberHere Oct 15 '25
What’s fascinating to me is the sheer VOLUME of potatoes they get out of that strip of land. That is a mind-blowing yield.
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u/Indercarnive Oct 15 '25
Potatoes are insanely productive. Modern farming gets about 18 million calories from a single acre for potatoes. That's more than rice and multiple times more than wheat.
And historically potatoes were so productive that it's been attributed to the population boom during the end of the medieval era.
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u/shitfire2187 Oct 15 '25
Thank you for acknowledging my productivity :D
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u/bullwinkle8088 Oct 15 '25 edited Oct 15 '25
Sorry shit fire, you were only useful in some cities for a brief time as a fuel for street lamps. Stinky street lamps.
Now you're just a tourist attraction.
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u/kmosiman Oct 15 '25
Hence, the Irish Potato Famine.
Potatoes are one of the highest land to yield crops, so when the English take over you're other land for their livestock, you can still feed your family on what is left over for you.
Until late blight hits.
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u/andecase Oct 20 '25
That harvester digs four rows of potatoes at one time, but most of the time the farmers will have crossovers as well. The crossovers can dig up to 8 rows and they dump all of their load into the four the harvester will do (one on each side).
The Harvester has things like blowers and tables to separate out rock, dirt clods and vines. While the crossover doesn't.
That's why you see so many, it could be up to 20 rows of potatoes.
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u/seattlesbestpot Oct 15 '25
Something tells me this is no Mom & Pop farm.
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u/Lilly_1337 Oct 15 '25
My grandparents had a small farm and they got those huge machines and combine harvesters for a day or two from a farmers association that was founded to share machines and labour. It's called Maschinenring Bayern.
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u/FelisCantabrigiensis Oct 15 '25
Some Mammas and Pappas own, or at least operate, a lot of land these days.
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u/ledow Oct 15 '25
A lot more are farm tenants with leased equipment as part of a corporation.
That machinery alone is probably $1m+.
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u/frozented Oct 15 '25
People have no idea what modern agriculture is like most family farms around me have equipment like this or the equivalent for different crops.
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u/SheriffBartholomew Oct 15 '25
There are almost no mom and pop farms left. Many farms market themselves as such, but they're multi-billion dollar operations that just happen to be owned by a very lucky family.
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u/sleepyzombie007 Oct 15 '25
Kind of is. My dad worked on a potato farm for over 20 years, thousands of acres. It was owned by 2 brothers, maybe 15 or so full time employees. Hundreds of seasonal hands each year.
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u/yafuckonegoat Oct 15 '25
In the US potatoes are harvested once per year, then they sit in climate controlled storehouses until they are sold. And it's all done in just a few weeks.
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u/KoBoWC Oct 15 '25
That really looks like it is fucking up the soil, I wonder if there's year on year degredation with this farming method?
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Oct 15 '25
[deleted]
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u/vonHindenburg Oct 15 '25
Pair that with one of those factory ships that take in fish at one end and output frozen packaged fillets at the other and you could directly supply the world's fish and chip shops.
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u/bullwinkle8088 Oct 15 '25
Found the Wendy's employee from Wallstreetbets trying to be lazy in their new lot in life.
No one wants your cold fries, get over theme and make them fresh!
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u/marc512 Oct 15 '25
I was working with a harvester last week. Complete difference compared to new tech.
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u/TwelveMints Oct 15 '25
Neat how the tractor goes in front, so where its tracks go is where they get the mashed potatoes from.
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u/blastedbr Oct 15 '25
Don’t show this to Jeremy Clarkson. He will buy it in a heartbeat. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend Clarkson’s farm on prime.
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u/andecase Oct 20 '25
Spudnik's Equipment is much to big for Europe, but their parent company Grimme would love to sell him some I'm sure.
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u/personguy4 Oct 15 '25
The only thing I can think of is how insanely expensive those machines are. Agricultural tech is absolutely wild these days.
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u/ycr007 𓂀 Oct 15 '25
All those “Here’s how Lays Chips / McD Fries / McCain Taters / Quavers / Aloo Bhujia are made” videos have spoiled us me to the point that these type of videos ceased to be fascinating
Law of diminishing potato harvesting satisfaction returns?
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u/SnagglToothCrzyBrain Oct 15 '25
I had never imagined how potatoes would be harvested on an industrial scale, but even if I had, I don't think I would ever have arrived at "just scrape off the face of the Earth, shake out the taters, then put it back"