40,000 kg. 3 months. Before the frost.
Large Cannabis Producer Restarts a Stalled 40,000 kg Outdoor Harvest in 3 Months
Cannabis Producer / Cultivator / Processor
Customer identity withheld at their request.
The Challenge
A large cannabis producer greenlit their 40,000 kg outdoor harvest for 2025, after nearly two years of being offline. With utilities, hoop houses, and equipment in various states of disarray, the site's Senior Manager was handed an urgent outdoor harvest restart on a compressed timeline with no room for delays.
She was working with shared resources stretched across multiple facilities, limited historical site knowledge, and a thin bench of personnel, and she knew that any delay risked stalling the entire outdoor operation before the frost hit.
The Solution
Twister ran an onsite assessment, then overhauled the site's four T-Zero PRO trimmers at Twister HQ. Twister rebuilt the equipment, accelerated production, re-installed it, and brought it online in time for harvest.
Onsite, Twister led trimming operations for five days, pushing the equipment to its limits while training the new team on setup, operation, and optimization, gradually handing over the reins as the crew came up to speed. A system is 50% equipment and 50% process, and Twister supports both.
The Results
- 4 T-Zero PROs rebuilt, installed, and operational within 3 months
- 2,400 lbs/hour sustained trimming throughput across all 4 units
- 40,000 kg finished flower harvested across 274 hoop houses within 6 weeks, before the frost
- +20% daily throughput versus the site's prior capacity ceiling
Outdoor Harvest Restart: Before vs After Twister
| Metric | Before Twister | After Twister |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment status | 4 T-Zero PROs offline, in disrepair | Rebuilt, installed, and operational |
| Timeline to restart | Site offline nearly 2 years | Back online within 3 months |
| Daily throughput | 18,000 wet lbs/day (capped) | 21,600 wet lbs/day (+20%) |
| Sustained trim rate | Limited, pre-restart baseline | 2,400 lbs/hour across 4 units |
| Crew readiness | New team, limited site history | Trained and confident, running independently |
| Harvest outcome | At risk of delay from the frost | 40,000 kg harvested in 6 weeks, before the frost |
Planning a harvest restart of your own?
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Download PDFGlossary
- T-Zero PRO
- Twister Technologies' automated trimming system, run here as a fleet of four units to hit sustained high-volume outdoor throughput.
- Hoop house
- A tunnel-style outdoor growing structure. This restart covered 274 of them across the site's outdoor footprint.
- Outdoor harvest restart
- Bringing a previously offline outdoor cultivation and processing operation back online for a new season, from equipment through trained crew.
- Wet lbs / day
- Daily processing throughput measured in wet, freshly harvested, untrimmed pounds. The metric used to compare the site's prior ceiling to 2025 output.
- Daily throughput ceiling
- The maximum sustainable daily processing volume a site can run before equipment or crew capacity becomes the bottleneck.
- On-site trim training and handover
- Twister's practice of running trimming operations alongside the customer's crew, then gradually transferring day-to-day operation as the team comes up to speed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long did it take to get the T-Zero PRO trimmers back online?
How much throughput can 4 T-Zero PRO machines sustain?
Did the restarted harvest outperform previous seasons?
What did Twister's on-site support include?
How large was this outdoor harvest?
What problem was the producer trying to solve?
Cite this case study
APA
Evans, J. (2026, August 12). Large cannabis producer restarts a stalled 40,000 kg outdoor harvest in 3 months. Twister Technologies. https://www.twistertrimmer.com/cannabis-harvest-automation-case-study-outdoor-restart/
MLA
Evans, Josh. "Large Cannabis Producer Restarts a Stalled 40,000 kg Outdoor Harvest in 3 Months." Twister Technologies, 12 Aug. 2026, www.twistertrimmer.com/cannabis-harvest-automation-case-study-outdoor-restart/.
See what a Twister restart could do for your next harvest
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