Extension Hires Agricultural Engineer

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To help chile growers with mechanical harvesting, New Mexico State University's Cooperative Extension Service has hired an agricultural engineer. Anna

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New Mexico State University's Cooperative Extension Service is adding a new agricultural engineer as it's turning up the heat on mechanizing the state's 200-million dollar chile industry. Ed Eaton will focus on mechanized chile harvesters. Initially, he's trying to stop sticks and field trash from clogging the harvester's cleaning systems.

"You've got to remember, the easiest way to remove sticks is to not pick them. That being said, it's difficult to do. So, I'll be concentrating on generally cleaning stations, cleaning mechanisms to remove sticks after it comes from the harvester."

Eaton, who specialized in biosystems engineering, will have his hands full. Just a few years ago, little of New Mexico's 20,000 acres of chile was mechanically harvested. Now, much of the eastern New Mexico crop is machine harvested, and there's growing interest in the Mesilla Valley, West Texas and eastern Arizona. For N-M-S-U's College of Agriculture and Home Economics, I'm Anna María Pérez-Wright.