Stilts Let Fruit Grower Work 20 Ft Above Ground

Stilts Let Fruit Grower Work 20 Ft Above Ground AG WORLD Ag World 18-2-21 New Zealand fruit grower Nigel Burbury has worked up among the tree tops for 14 years on a king-size pair of stilts that make tree trimming easy. When wearing his custom-made stilts, Burbury 's feet are about 7 ft. off the ground. He primarily uses them for pruning trees and says he can work much more rapidly than other workers using either ladders or motorized cherry pickers. Burbury does contract work for other growers and also runs his own apple, peach and pear orchard near Clive, New Zealand. He had an engineer make the stilts from aluminum pipe with small plates on bottom. A seatbelt straps around the top of the poles to add to the stability. He uses a ladder to get up on the stilts. He often works for up to 10 hrs. a day on the stilts. He's able to trim up to 20 ft. above ground down to about 6 ft. Burbury says the long stilts can be dangerous on uneven ground, with small holes or tufts of grass occasionally tripping him up. However, he rarely ever falls. "It's a long way down when I do start to fall, though," he says.

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