The two types of harvesters differ in how they get the carrots from the ground.
Top lifters use rubber belts to grab the green tops of the carrot plant and pull them from the soil. A share pushes under the carrot root and loosens the plant.
The belt takes the entire carrot into the machine where the tops are cut off, sent along a waste path, and dropped back on to the field.
A share lifter uses a share to get the carrots out of the ground from underneath. The machine must be preceded by a topper to cut the green tops off the carrot plants. The carrots travel along a longer web to separate the soil.
The carrot roots travel along one or more webs to remove most of the soil attached to the carrot. The carrots are collected either in a storage tank on the machine (called a "Bunker") or in a trailer pulled alongside the machine by another tractor.
