HEREFORDSHIRE fruit farmer, Phil Hunt of Rectory Farm, Munsley, is the first grower in the country to be harvesting his 32 acres of cider apples with a revolutionary new apple picker.

The Tuthill Centipede harvester is to be offically launched at Friday's Bulmers open day at Llantilio Crossenny, but Phil has already been putting the new machine through its paces.

He said: "We've had a Tuthill harvester for about 17 years - one of the original designs. But it's got to the stage that we needed to pick the fruit a lot quicker. The weather seems to have changed and the season seems to be wetter now."

Phil has found that his new harvester has increased his daily tonnage of fruit from 20 tonnes to about 70-80 tonnes.

"The new picker makes a huge difference. It's absolutely spot on with everything it does - it just scoops the apples up, but with little damage to the fruit."

Designer George Tuthill is delighted with the harvester. He started providing machines for Bulmers in 1972 and has developed his ideas over the years.

George explained: "I've gradually been introducing centipede technology into my recent machines. This allows the fruit to be moved horizontally across the ground and is therefore very gentle on the fruit itself. "This latest design is a simple but revolutionary, compact machine, that has developed the centipede from being a brush to also a picker. Phil Hunt is the first grower to buy one."

The cider apple industry is one of the few bright spots in British farming and continues to expand rapidly to meet public demand.

Herefordshire has long been associated with cider apple farming, but over the past few years 6000 acres of new orchards have been planted in the region. This year the cider fruit growers are harvesting a bumper crop, bringing in £10 million revenue for the beleaguered farming industry.

On Friday, Bulmers' Penrhos Farm at Llantilio Crossenny will be hosting a technical day for growers, designed to demonstrate new methods of fruit harvesting and handling, and act as a forum for growers to meet and discuss their own orchard's progress.

The 400-acre Penrhos Farm is in the middle of harvesting its 3000-tonne crop, and the orchard staff will receive no respite from their task, despite the visit from growers, machine manufacturers, and chemical suppliers from all around the region.