This is a self-propelled, vine seed crop harvester in Colusa County California harvesting a watermelon seed field. The field is first wind-rowed before harvest as pictured above. The fruits are conveyed to a series of blades that cut each fruit into small pieces. The chunks of cut fruit are dumped into a revolving wire mesh drum. In the drum, the seeds are separated from fruit tissue and fall through the screen to a seed bin beneath the drum. Pieces of fruit fall out the back of the drum onto the field. The field is harvested well past the edible maturity of most fruits to increase seed yield. Plants are spaced more closely than in a field for watermelon fruit production, so fruit size is smaller than you would find in a grocery.

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