Sweet Pea Harvest in Central Iowa

Kristine Neu and Ajay Nair,
Department of Horticulture,
Iowa State University

Yesterday we were invited to check out the harvest of 100 acres of sweet peas on a farm in Central Iowa. The harvest began at 5:00 a.m. and would be completed by early afternoon. The crew included 7 harvesters, 2 transport carts, 2 teams of mechanical support, and a crew of 10 semi trucks on a continuous rotation. The drivers were transporting the peas 180 miles to a processing plant in southern Minnesota; each semi truck load contained approximately 28,000 lbs of shelled peas.