09/27/05 C.O.S. 2015

Some of the top Northwest tree fruit researchers have a plan to make orchards more efficient from technological and economic standpoints. Oregon State University tree fruit researcher Clark Seavert talks about C.O.S. SEAVERT: C.O.S. stands for Competitive Orchard Systems of 2015. This is part of the National Tree Fruit Technology Roadmap, in which we're looking at ways of developing an orchard system that best utilizes technology that will return a rate of investment of twenty per cent or more back to the grower. One example of C.O.S. is technologies such as mechanical work platforms that allows more labor to pick fruit in a more safe and efficient manner. But Seavert is quick to point out that C.O.S. is an integrated plan. SEAVERT: My belief is it's not going to be one particular research program that's going to make a twenty per cent return on investment, but rather it's all of them together. It's more of an integrated system. So that's what C.O.S. 2015 is, and that we have the 2015 in there because it's a timeline. It's a bench mark that we can measure how well we've done. And what all of this boils down to making the orchard, and the people it supports, a viable operation for years to come. SEAVERT: It's economic development. It is a safe work place for the work force. It's a changing work force. It's using technologies that will have a higher skill work force. It's taking technology, and the current systems we have and bringing them together. I mean, it really is a win-win for the economy, for the local communities, and for the grower community.