Nowadays, there are many studies about the efficiency of the mechanized coffee harvest but not much is known about the influence of the sticks vibration and the speed of the harvester machine on the mechanized coffee harvest process. The goal of this paper was to evaluate this influence. The study was conducted at the Capetinga Farm, south of the state of Minas Gerais. For the experiments, it was utilized the randomized design with four repetitions in aleatory portions having, on average, 40 plants in each line. The experiments were done with two runs of the harvester considering the green coffee berries rate. The first run was done having 30% of green coffee berries and, on the second one, about 10% of green coffee berries. It was concluded that, on the first run, the volume of coffee berries harvested, the leaf loss and the seed dropping efficiencies were 29.25%, 31.12% and 31.85%, respectively, having better results when operating with the highest vibration. On the second run, with the highest operational speed, the volume of coffee berry that fell on the ground varied 61.2% in relation to the lowest speed and the reduction on the harvested volume and in the harvest efficiency varied 14.28% from the lowest to the highest operational speed.
coffee plantation; agricultural mechanization; seed dropping
