The existing harvesting technologies are systems which have been developed and refined over the past 50 plus years From the humble no cab, single row mechanical harvester to today's six row machines, technologies have allowed greater and greater individual and support equipment capacity, with a steady reduction in harvest labour per bale harvested. These developments have basically been refinements of the spindle picking system, a technology first marketed in the late 1940's. Whilst capital cost has increased significantly, to a large extant this has been offset by capacity increases, the combined effect being a lowering in the real cost per bale harvested overtime